The sound of jackhammers and clanging metal might be what you would expect to hear walking past a noisy construction site. So it surprises passersby when, instead, they hear the soft sounds of jazz.

Anyone walking along Par-la-Ville Road at lunchtime has probably heard the soulful music from the building site next door to The Royal Gazette . The jazz tunes have, in fact, been coming from one of the workers on the site who yesterday took time out to explain why he happily serenades his workmates.

Colin Lee, a professional musician since the age of 17, said he began playing at the site as a way of adding some calm to the noisy place he works in. But it also helps him keep his sanity.

"With all that goes on at the site, playing the sax sort of soothes me,'' he said. "and I get in a little practice that I can't get in in the evening.'' He also plays the guitar, trumpet and sings. Amazingly Mr. Lee plays all his instruments by ear, but has been taking music lessons recently.

A born-again Christian, he has played in groups such as Burning Ice and The Steelers.

He became a Christian after struggling through years of drug abuse. At age 40 his life began going steeply downhill, he said, when, after 26 years of drug abuse, he found himself in prison on charges of armed robbery.

"The day I was released I bought an ounce of cocaine before I even left Dockyard,'' he said. "My life started to go downhill from there.'' He started down the road to recovery through Montrose Substance Abuse Centre.

But after two years he began to drift back into drugs, but a friend at the First Church of God helped him.

"I went to the First Church of God to hear my friend, Greg Seymour who had been converted, sing there,'' he said. "I refused to go into the church because I had vowed never to go into another church again. Just as I was getting on my bike to leave something compelled me to go inside. I went in and was converted.''