This is the vivacious English pianist Zoe Rahman's sixth recording as leader following her MOBO award winning trio CD Kindred Spirits and recent duos with the likes of George Mraz and Courtney Pine.

Zoe Rahman's full-blooded, chord splashing, orchestral approach to the acoustic piano finds a natural home in the solo recital setting and transferring it to the studio hasn’t lessened the impact of her fierily percussive style and passion-fuelled methods of soloing. Mentored by the pianist Joanne Brackeen, who was a huge inspiration as a teacher at Berklee on Rahman's approach, her classical music background merges with a more earthy mix of ‘spiritual’ jazz, blues, Bengali (as on her excellent 2008 release Where Rivers Meet), middle-eastern and latin/African influences. Pieces by Jessica Williams, Abdullah Ibrahim, Duke Ellington (her version of the widely-known standard ‘These Foolish Things’ looks especially to the latter) also point to a few of her key influences. If her own compositions are slightly less focused, when she's in her element Rahman puts in some riveting performances here.