​Zoe Rahman: 'I'm a classically-trained pianist - but I love listening to Bruno Mars and Stevie Wonder'

Zoe is currently touring The Hull Suite, Live, in which she plays alongside Alec Dankworth (bass) and Gene Calderazzo (drums).

I’m currently reading

A book on the prolific singer-songwriter, actor and composer Serge Gainsbourg, probably one of the most important figures in French pop and a bit of a European music icon.

I don’t think that I was ever what you could call an avid reader, because although we were brought up in Chichester, which has plenty going in stage and literary terms, we were far more interested in running around in the local fields and woods.

My dad actually taught poetry and English literature, and my three siblings and I would always get Mr Men books slipped under our pillows at Christmas to start us all off on a love of reading.

I always gravitated towards my music, rather than any literature. I could certainly read both words and music by the time I was four years old, and I loved both.

There were at least three pianos in our home, and lots of other instruments as well.

I’ve been listening to

Stevie Wonder, and recently, Bruno Mars.

The album that I always return to is from 1966, and it’s Forest Flower by jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd – he recorded it at that year’s Monterey Festival, and it’s still fresh and relevant, all these years on.

Pianist-composer Keith Jarrett is also at the top of my list of favourites.

I love the music of Dame Cleo Laine and Sir Johnny Dankworth, and I was privileged to meet them several times – their lovely son Alec is the bassist in my trio, and what a great guy he is.

On TV, I’ve been watching

The Piano, where ordinary people are given the opportunity to sit down at a railway station, and perform live on a keyboard to an audience of whomever turns up and wants to listen.

If it proves anything, it proves that there is an inordinate amount of talent out there, all of whom are waiting to surprise us and entertain us.

It’s brilliant, with wonderful individuals finding the space and the opportunity to play.

And yes, I’ve done it myself – once on a piano that was covered in graffiti and at Herne Hill station, and once at Hull Paragon, where they’d provided me with a special grand piano, and where I played a lot of our Hull Suite, commissioned by the local jazz festival, and it was an amazing experience.

The live performance I’d recommend is

This goes all the way back to me being in my early teens, and being taken to a Chichester jazz event, - and I have not got a clue who was playing, but it was totally different to anything before, and it opened both my eyes and my ears in what was a completely different atmosphere – people were allowed to talk, and to discuss things, there was not a sign of any strict formality, and there was a very popular bar at the back of the room.

People came in and out, and some stayed, and I was hooked entirely. The players may have slipped from memory, but the night itself will be with me for evermore.

It was, if you like, the key that opened the door for me.

The other two gigs that stand out are seeing the Jacques Loussier Trio for the first time, and the evening I first encountered Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth. Those two were incredibly special people.

My next boxed set or streamed series will be (or was….)

When I was a lot younger, a collection of all the Carry Ons would have suited fine, but today I’ll go for The Young Offenders, all about those two loveable Cork lads who manage to be, at one and the same time, both endearing and complete rogues.

And also The Detectorists, which is proper, gentle comedy. Toby Jones is absolutely brilliant – but then, he always is.

The App I couldn’t be without is

WhatsApp, for all the family photographs that I could not possibly be without when I am away from home and working, and a new one called The Fork, which will give you a very good discount on restaurants and eating places if you make sure to book ahead.

What is right at the top of your “To do” Bucket list?

To keep working and playing of course, but I do want at some point very soon, to return to India – I last went so many years ago, and loved it – to re-visit all my Bengal relatives, the family originally comes from around Dhaka.

I want to take my son Zan with me, and my daughter Jasmine – she was named after the aromatic flower that blooms so plentifully in those parts, and which is woven into their stunning garlands. It’s that Bengali part of me that I love to celebrate.

www.zoerahman.com/live for Yorkshire dates in November.