Mirian Craig talks to Zoe Rahman, an Asian woman successfully carving out her career in the predominately male world of instrumental jazz.

Often the people most deserving of recognition are the people you hear about least, says jazz piano player Zoe Rahman.

"With the way the media is set up in this country, instrumental music isn't recognised as an art form as much as vocal music. It's a shame, because there's a lot of great music out there," she adds.

In fact, Rahman, 36, is one of the few instrumental jazz musicians mainstream music critics have deigned to honour with their attention.

As the only jazz artist nominated for the 2006 Nationwide Mercury Prize for her album Melting Pot - alongside the Arctic Monkeys, Muse, and Thom Yorke - she gave them little choice but to take note.

Since then, Rahman, who lives in Mill Hill, has reissued her first album, The Cynic, and is enjoying more publicity than most instrumental jazz musicians would ever expect.

She says: "I was on TV for three minutes and suddenly thousands of people want to buy my album. It's not that people aren't interested in this sort of music, i's that they don't hear about it. It would be great if that could change."

Instrumental jazz is obscure enough, but the fact that Rahman is a woman makes her even more of an exception - something she is increasingly conscious of.

"The more gigs I do, the more obvious it is that there aren't that many women musicians out there. I'm always working with men. I don't even get interviewed by many women music journalists.

"There are a lot of women who sing and people often assume I'm a singer because that's a stereotypical view of what women can do. It's quite hard for people to make that leap and just accept you as a musician and a composer. I turned up at a gig a while ago and the sound guys had set up a microphone for me so I could sing.

People also say, 'So where will you want to stand?' I have to tell them, 'No, I'm a piano player.'"

Where other musicians might be touchy about being identified by their gender, Rahman talks matter-of-factly about this imbalance in the jazz demographic. "The majority of the time I'll be the only woman in the band, so it kind of becomes obvious. I'm used to it. It's a late night culture - you often don't get to eat dinner before the gig, so you end up going for a late dinner together afterwards, and it's a laddy atmosphere."

There are other young women in Rahman's shoes such as Japanese jazz star Hiromi and jazz piano player Alcyona, from Dorset, of whom Rahman is a fan. She says: "It's great to see other women out there taking charge."

Rahman started playing the piano aged four. She grew up in Chichester and came to London on weekends for classical piano lessons at the Royal Academy, but at home listened to Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis.

After studying music at Oxford University she got a scholarship to spend a semester at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she stayed on for an extra semester studying under jazz piano veteran JoAnne Brackeen.

Describing the contrast between Berklee and Oxford, she says: "At Oxford I tried to get as much jazz into my classical music degree as possible. I wrote a dissertation on Bill Evans. I just wanted to play the piano, which you didn't have to do as part of your degree. But at Berklee all these amazing people passed by and did gigs - McCoy Tyner, Ray Brown, Kenny Kirkland and loads of others."

Recently Rahman has been exploring her Asian heritage with a new album of Bengali music due for release later this year, recorded with her brother Idris Rahman, who plays the saxophone and clarinet.

With an English mother and father from Bengal, it was while transferring her father's old tapes to CD that Rahman first listened to the Bengali music he loved and wanted to learn more.

"It's a real learning curve for us. We've been going to Bangladesh on and off for years but have never really played the music," Rahman says.

"We did a concert in a 750-seat auditorium there, and it was so weird - the two front rows were filled with members of our family and they were all singing along.

"I've noticed more Asian people coming to my gigs, as well as more younger women and girls, which is lovely, because jazz isn't always identified with Asian people. Hopefully if some of those people are inspired to take up an instrument that's only a good thing."

Zoe Rahman is playing at the artsdepot, Tally Ho Corner, North Finchley, on Thursday, July 19, at 8.30pm. Tickets priced £14 (£12 concessions) are available from the box office on 020