HAVING attempted to play the saxophone as a teenager I know it takes a certain amount of commitment and talent to master (which is why I packed mine away after grade three). Which makes it all the more astounding that Guadeloupe musician Groover not only managed to master it within a mere three months, but that he was just 12 at the time.

Now, after touring the world with various bands, playing everything from jazz and funk, to pop and rock, it is Groover’s time to shine and he has just released his debut single Deep from his “electro/dance jazz” album Sax Energy.

Taking me back to the beginning, he says: “I was playing the flute at school and my teacher said, ‘Oh, look how he is moving his fingers, he is moving them so fast, he should play the saxophone.’ At around the same time my cousin played me a song called Wine Light by Grover Washington and from that day I just liked the saxophone. My father bought me my own and I just started playing, it wasn’t difficult for me and within three months I was playing with a band (Coconut).”

Despite his obvious natural ability, the Beckton resident, who parents divorced when he was a teenager, explains his father had reservations.

“My father thought it was just a hobby,” Groover says in his strong French accent. “He didn’t believe it could be a career, so I studied sound engineering. But it was not what destiny was calling me to do, music was always in my head and it was a way for me to escape my troubles. Everytime something happened to me or my parents said something to me to release the pain, a song came out of my head and the melody started talking to me. It’s like a support and it becomes the comfort.”

While still studying, Groover began performing with SymBiose and when the opportunity arose to travel with them to New York he took it. A record deal and album followed and in 1996, after successful years working as a saxophonist and keyboard player, he settled in London to concentrate on his own projects and set up his own record label Groov’Earth Records. Now, a familiar face on the club scene, performing live to his own dance tracks, he is getting ready to change our perceptions of the saxophone.

“People think saxophone equals jazz,” the 40-year-old, real name Thierry Boucaud, says, “but it depends how you use it. I use the saxophone melody like a singer and when I play live people don’t want me to stop, they say more sax, more sax.”

A friendly, welcoming man, prone to bouts of giggles, it’s clear to see why energetic clubbers would be warmed by his soulful tracks and down-to-earth presence, and he smiles when he tells me his new single is getting a good reaction.

“It’s about finding inner strength when faced with opposition. People said to me you won’t do anything, you are not good, and sometimes it can affect you, so with me I fight back. Some people think if you are not doing what they do, you haven’t got ambition, they want you to be a lawyer or a doctor. But my ambition was always to be a producer and to master the sound, and now I produce my own music.”

Deep can be downloaded at www.indiestore.7digital.com/grooverarthrecords or is available from www.groovearthrecords.com