Growing up in a strong Christian household, my mother would play a variety of music genres, from Shirley Ceasar, Luther Vandross, Lionel Ritchie (her favourite), Whitney Houston, to Culture Club, Duran Duran, Paul Young, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and more.  Music was always playing in our house.  A family friend who was heavily into Smooth Jazz would always have the likes of George Benson, Dave Sanborn, Marcus Miller playing in his car and I absolutely fell in love with the genre.  My ear would pick up on what was being played by all the instruments in a song and I loved to read up about every musician on a track.  Discovering that these musicians were established in their own right, I started listening to their individual works and would imagine what it would be like to be able to sing or play an instrument.  Music became my 'escape.

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 As a teenager, I dreamed of being a singer.  But dreaming was all I would do as I was painfully shy, and so kept my singing performances to when in the shower!  I left school not knowing what I wanted to do and so did a year course in office admin.  It was at the end of this course that I bought my soprano sax.  Whilst working full-time in office admin, I went on to study part-time and obtained Pre. LLB qualifications followed by 3 years of a part-time law. I did office admin as a career for 20 years and for the last 18 of those years, I was employed as a Service Delivery Co-ordinator at the Forensic Science Service until the company closed in 2011. All those years of touch-typing made my fingers very nimble!

 

At age 24, I had my son and was a single parent from the 'get go'. It's been a tough but rewarding 23 years a single parent and I give God thanks for continuing to carry me through many difficult circumstances. I'm very proud of the young man that my son has become!  I can now look back and be grateful for my admin. job as it enabled me to provide for my son and get on the property ladder.  However, there were 'obstructions' for career growth and development and I would pray to God for a way out.   In 2005, aged 31, I started to think about a career as a secondary school music teacher.  So, whilst still working full-time at the Forensic Science Service and being a single parent, I commenced studying for a 6-year BA (Hons) with the Open University.  I also went to Business Link sessions to obtain an understanding of what starting a business would entail.  The key point that hit home  during these sessions was that "starting your own business is risky, so make sure that it's a calculated risk!"  On reflection, I knew that, as a single parent, I couldn't afford to walk out of a job that had a decent wage and so I gave up on the idea of becoming a professional saxophonist and focused on obtaining my teaching qualifications.   

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Although I played my soprano sax and toured with a few gospel bands, I mainly played as part of the worship team at the church that I attended.   However, the soprano sax was unsuitable for some songs and in 2010, I decided to buy my alto and tenor saxes and practised daily.  I found that my P. Mauriat alto sax was my voice and my playing ability and style grew massively from this point.   The following year the Forensic Science Service closed. God knew!  This was it...the window of opportunity that God had prepared me for!    'Samantha-Jayne: A saxophonist For All Occasions' became a reality in Aug 2011!