He had only just picked up his airline ticket for England, had not yet transferred money into the foreign account he was going to use, had a dinner date with his aunt and had to drop by a friend who was singing at a club that night to say goodbye. It was Thursday afternoon.

“Saturday is very close,” says Anthony Woodroffe Jr. “At the beginning of the week I knew that the week was going to be over too quickly. It was as if I was seeing Saturday already. I knew time would just fly.” His suitcases were not yet packed, but he was sure that he was on top of things. “I have everything set aside. It's just a matter of throwing them into the suitcase.”

He was sipping his latt é at the Rituals Café chatting with good friend and fellow musician David Bertrand and myself. His trip to England would take him to the Leeds School of Music, “not too far from Manchester ,” he explains.

There he would study towards a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Jazz Performance, majoring in the saxophone. His courses will also include music composition, music analysis, music history and all aspects of performance. There will also be the opportunity to work in the studio. “It is a well-rounded programme,” he affirms.

But the saxophone was not initially his personal choice of instrument. “I wanted to play the trumpet actually. My dad is a trumpeter. I joined the Cadet Band and Dad suggested that I should not play the trumpet. We have the same name so it could have caused a little confusion. He told me I should play saxophone and I started doing so,” Anthony says casually in response to David's prodding for him to tell me how he came to be playing the saxophone.

He acknowledges too the value of a kind word to a young musician. At the end of his first year of playing the saxophone he got the opportunity to play with Watty Watkins in San Fernando . “He was very complimentary to me about my playing. That gave me further encouragement to stay with the saxophone.”

He sees his involvement in music as “a family heritage and a natural progression kind of thing.” Not only is his dad a musician but his mum sang with La Petite Musicale and is one of the leaders of the St Anthony's Senior Folk Choir at Petit Valley .

He admits that after some encouragement from his parents, once he started to play music he enjoyed doing so. “But it was more so when I started coming into my own. I started doing my own thing and realizing that I could probably actually make it playing music. It was then that music became my focus.”

There were other experiences which confirmed for him that, the direction he has chosen is the right one. “Going to England in 2001 was also very important. I played with Ebony Steelband, went out to Jazz Clubs, talked to musicians there and played with them. Doing that was very helpful.”

Of equal value was the interaction he has had with musicians locally. Now he is certain about what he wants to do. “Music is definitely my direction in life,” he says.

“In terms of my personality, I'm generally a laid-back person. So I'm very much into groove,” he says, when the conversation shifted to the musicians who have influenced his choice of music. “There are a lot of saxophonists that I've listened to, but from very early on Groover Washington Jr. has been a large influence.”

And just what is Anthony's understanding of “groove”, a musical term about which there is so much dissent even among musicians? “Groove for me is not necessarily playing a lot of difficult parts or technical lines. It is finding a common ground where it's not that you're playing one note, but you're playing something nice and simple that people can easily fall into and enjoy.”

Anthony Woodroffe Jr

Anthony doubles on a number of woodwind instruments – soprano, alto, tenor saxophones, flute, clarinet and bassoon. David asked him how he became proficient at all of them. He explains that his dad has a music school, The Brass Institute.

“I am guessing that his vision for me was to be the wood-wind person and that I would teach the different instruments offered at the Institute. He initially told me that I should learn the different instruments.

So I got some tuition. The major challenge of playing different instruments is actually having an idea of what the instrument sounds like.

Because, yes, anyone can play the different instruments, but there are a lot of nuances, specific to each instrument that you need to spend a lot of time working on in order to get it right, so you don't sound like a saxophonist trying to play flute, or a flute player who is trying to play clarinet.”

When Anthony started music studies, Music was not offered as an examinable subject at the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC). “At Fatima College I would play for Masses, Prize Giving and other functions. Yes, they encouraged me in doing my music. They were supportive, but the school does not have the facilities or structures for them to specifically nurture someone in music.”

He is pleased at the inclusion of Music at CXC. He thinks though that some revision is needed in the approach to music in education. “Some further steps have to be made. Society as a whole has to find something for these new musicians to actually do when they have their education.”

What he did study at Fatima though, were the Business Subjects. “Up to very recently I was doing the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) programme. I still have the option of finishing it. I started it at the same time I started getting a lot more involved in my music.

It became increasingly difficult for me to focus on the accounting, because accounting is something that requires a lot of attention. The music is my passion and my love. So I think I would go after that one first,” he says, agreeing that the two are an interesting combination.

The support from Fatima has continued even to this day, and earlier this year there was a contingent of teachers at a fund-raising concert Anthony staged at the Central Bank. But the support goes both ways. I shared with him that I heard him play solo for the first time at the funeral of his Mr Gomes, father of his Vice Principal.

“Mrs Gomes-Phillip was my religion teacher and she was involved in organising the school Masses. She always said that her dad loved instrumental music and I promised her that I would play for him some day. I am big on trying to keep promises,” he said with a boyish smile and a reminder to me that he did keep his promise for this interview.

Anthony recalls that when he first started there was no saxophonist in Trinidad who just played the instrument. There were some who played with specific bands. But there was no one who played the saxophone as a career and who he could look up to.

He does not want the same thing to happen to young musicians coming up. So he plans to return home after his first degree and his Masters and “tutor young musicians, work with my peers on the local scene, sharing what I know and learning what they know.”

He sees Trinidad as a base from where he can travel to Europe to perform or play regionally at different Jazz Festivals. “The global community is small,” he adds, “so if someone really wants me to play I could be in Trinidad or the UK or wherever, they would find me to get me up there.”

He has some advice for young musicians: “We are all at different stages. As a beginner you are not expected to sound like John Coltrane or Charlie Parker. The most you can do for yourself is to perform competently and try to give your all. No matter how simple it is people would appreciate you for that.”

Anthony appreciates the little things in life. The single moment that stands out in his life as a musician is one not directly related to performance, but a compliment he received recently from someone he looks up to as a friend and a musician.

“To get a compliment from him was touching as well as encouraging.” He also appreciated the lime some of his partners had for him the night before: a jam session in which individual musicians ramajayed on their instruments.

He still had lots of people to say goodbye to. “How it ends up is you reach there and you say ten minutes, but next hour you now looking to leave because people not sure when they're going to see you again. Most people are of the opinion that I am going to go away and stay away. I don't know why.”

He describes his move as a direction change. “I am very confortable here at home,” he says, as if pondering his next move. He does not plan to start studies right away but to spend some time meeting musicians and playing out. “Being on my own, making sure I make enough to pay rent, buy food. That's going to be a first for me.”

He is not at all fazed by the recent bombings in London . “There are things that you have no control over,” he says. But what he does have control over is remaining true to himself and to the music and he is not about to allow fads in the music to mislead him.

The Sunday morning Mass at St Anthony's, Petit Valley where Anthony has played for the last few years would most certainly miss him, not only for his playing, but also for his gentle, warm presence. Both his family and his parish are no doubt proud of this young man who is investing in his talent and giving himself to the world.