Eschewing the traditional path of obscurity and penury, Potter, at the relatively young age of 36, finds himself widely regarded as the heir to jazz's tenor saxophone throne.

Nor has this flight from obscurity been for want of trying.

It has often been said that the modern generation of jazz musicians have missed out on the apprenticeships that their predecessors underwent. Record companies, looking for youth and marketability, have tended to catapult young musicians straight into the limelight. But Potter's career trajectory has been more considered, and he continues to serve his time in the bands of other, more experienced musicians. It is this, as much as his undeniable talent, that has made Potter the consummate musician he is. In an artform replete with ego, Potter's modesty and restraint have made him a worthy successor to the great tenor players he respects, like John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter.

Potter's earliest mentors connected him directly to that tradition. At the age of 15, he was encouraged by pianist Marian McParland in his home town of Columbia. Also without leaving home, Potter managed to impress the legendary trumpeter Red Rodney, one of Charlie Parker's sidemen, and when Potter eventually arrived in New York to study jazz at the New School, he was invited to join Rodney's group, staying with the trumpeter until the latter's death in 1994.

After the New School, Potter might have been tempted to pursue his own ambitions in music, but instead he embarked on a series of apprenticeships as a sideman, including stints with the Mingus Big Band, Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band, bassist Ray Brown, guitarist Jim Hall and trumpeter Dave Douglas. It's hard to underestimate the difference it can make to a musician to be exposed to the working methods and the musical philosophy of a master like Hall or Motian, and Potter's growing maturity is evident on records like Motian's Reincarnation of a Love Bird (1994).

Potter was a member of Jim Hall's quartet when the guitarist won the prestigious Jazzpar prize in 1998, and he appeared on the Storyville album which commemorates the prize. Two years later, Potter himself became the youngest musician ever to win the Jazzpar.

Perhaps the two employers that have contributed most to Potter's profile in recent years are bassist Dave Holland and jazz-rock group Steely Dan. The saxophonist was a major part of Steely Dan's return to recording in 1994, after a 20year hiatus, appearing on the Grammy-nominated Two Against Nature album. But his highest profile gig in jazz terms has been his now seven years and counting with English bassist Dave Holland, whose quintet is regarded by many as the leading small group in jazz today.

It is appropriate therefore that when Potter did finally emerge with a band of his own a few years ago, he called it Underground.

Without turning his back on his 'day job' with Holland, Potter quietly assembled a superb quartet of front-rank New York players and crafted a sound that moves his playing into a more contemporary setting. Drummer Nate Smith, guitarist Adam Rogers and keyboardist Craig Tayborn represent a serious concentration of jazz talent, and it is a rare treat for Irish audiences that they begin their European tour here next week.

Chris Potter's Underground play Dolan's Warehouse, Limerick, Saturday 13 January and Whelan's, Dublin, Sunday 14 January