Many of them made the same mistake. When he showed promise, they asked if he wanted to be as good a jazzman as his father. They asked later if he would be as good on the saxophone as his older brother, who was something of a genius too. Some even asked him to be a friend, simply because they liked his playing. Well-intentioned, they were the wrong questions.
Michael Buckley is a grandmaster saxman. He plays down the family angle. True, his father Dick was a well-known pro around town and, yes, his brother Richie has grown to enjoy a world reputation among saxophonists. But Michael has other matters on his mind.
The music's the thing, he says, the thing is the music. It always was. "It's been important for me in the past few years to be my own musician. It's important, but people still want to put you down and people always want to compare you, which is nonsense. I don't sound like anybody from my own family. I've worked hard to be my own man."
Buckley plays and teaches sax. Now 28, he grew up in Walkinstown in west Dublin and lives in Cabra with Colette Cusack, his girlfriend of eight years, whom he married last month. He writes jazz, does recording sessions for pop groups, scores music for films and TV, and collaborates with musicians of all ages. There's little money to be made from the jazz, but Buckley is content to let his extra-curricular music subsidise his core interest. In leaner times, he didn't like the non-jazz work, but he sees himself more as an "all-round" musician these days.
He has quality contacts. Already he has worked with such eminent elders of the scene as Louis Stewart, Noel Kelehan, Mary Coughlan and Paul Brady. Away from home, collaborators include Jerry Lee Lewis, Harry Rubenivitz, a friend of Sinatra, and 1960s star Donovan.
It sounds easy. "Donovan did a marvellous session in 1971 with Marvin Gaye's band, The Jazz Crusaders. He gave me so many tracks to write brass for and asked me to hire a band to do it. It was great because the guys in the band are my heroes. They were in Steely Dan and played with Donald Fagan. It was a session I won't forget."
Buckley brought a new group to Renards night club in Dublin last month. The Quartet Jams, who first played together in June, did two late night gigs as part of a week of sessions starting in Barcelona and landing in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Co Clare.
With Buckley, who plays coronet also, the band comprises piano player Albert Sanz from Valencia; bassist Jeremy Brown from London; and drummer Stephen Keogh, a Dubliner who lives in Barcelona. All high pedigree musicians - and gentlemen too - they played a mix of standards and original tunes to audiences composed of aficionados, casual listeners and hardened club-goers.
The music was noted for its lyrical simplicity and the emptiness of its pauses, poignant in places. Also making a fair mark on the emotional register was its improvised harmony - spontaneous yes, but precise also. Words, a desperately poor arbiter of jazz, seem weak by comparison. As if the tunes crept softly, almost unnoticed, into the heart, the culmination was a feeling of warmth and well-being and a rather strong desire to hear more.
Improvisation is the key. "The melody of the tune is only a vehicle for the actual improvisation. That's what jazz is about - the melodies are over in a few seconds. Really good improvised music is structured on the melody and doesn't get too far away from the tune."
What's it like playing the music? "I've an awful wild imagination. I find myself giggling when I'm playing. It's like driving a car and reaching a certain distance and saying how did I get here? I'm working on that at the moment, trying to communicate more with what I play."
Buckley is a confident character. His introductions to the audience are clear and, like his colleagues, he marshals the music with sensitivity, or if required, with vigour and verve. How does he explain his approach? "One of the greatest things you need to play well is confidence. But I'm not actually that confident. When I was young I never had any fear. I was cool as could be. Things change. I'm getting more nervous on stage than I used to be. I always remember my Dad saying `it's easier when you're younger'. When you're playing a tune or a solo there has to be a sense of structure for the musician and for the audience. It's like a good book - a beginning, middle and end."
The band's neat approach to the music suggests that this is an all-embracing - and successful - philosophy. Buckley describes The Quartet Jams as a "going concern" and his aims are clear. "My plan this year was to write music and put a band together with the purpose of gigging abroad with high quality musicians and record them."
Buckley released his first solo record in 1997, on the Improvised Music Company label. Titled The Pendulum, with accompaniment by bassist Wayne Bachelor and drummer Darren Beckett, Buckley wrote about half the tunes.
His description of the writing process is straightforward. "I don't think `Oh God, there's a sunrise - I'm going to write something about the sun'. What usually happens is that I get inspired somewhere else, whatever I'm doing. When I start writing I think, oh, this would be good maybe at a part of a film, if I'm writing for a movie."
Buckley's colleagues in the band are no less talented. Sanz, a gifted 20-year-old who has been playing jazz for only four years, has already released an album with many of his own compositions. A subtle pianist with a dreamy style, he is edgy at times, apparently most comfortable when playing music; searching for the right word in English when talking. He says he started playing jazz during lapses of concentration when practising classical piano.
Stephen Keogh, the eldest of the group at 36, is also classically trained. From a young age, he played as percussionist with the National Symphony Orchestra for 10 years before turning to jazz full-time in 1988. Both he and Brown, like Buckley, have played with many of the leading figures in modern jazz, accompanying such maestros as Brad Mehldau, Art Farmer, George Coleman and Gordon Beck.
