“WHEN I go back and listen to my old things I’m pleasantly surprised. It almost seems like someone else.”

Last year’s Anything But Look was jazz pianist Jason Rebello’s first solo album in more than 14 years – aside from 2007’s Jazz Rainbow, which used popular TV themes to introduce the genre to younger ears.

For more than a decade Rebello has been on the road working with Sting and the Jeff Beck Group.

“I had acheived a lot of things I wanted to do as a solo artist,” he says, recalling the period after his last solo album 1999’s Next Time Around.

“I needed a break from doing it – I had run out of steam a bit. When I got a call from Sting [to replace former pianist Kenny Kirkland who died in 1998] it sounded like a good time to work with someone else.”

After Sting’s jazz-influenced pop came the offer to work with Jeff Beck, in a louder rock outfit that, alongside more traditional piano, saw him play Mini Moog parts originally created by Jan Hammer.

“I was improvising, but trying not to use jazz language,” says Rebello.

“It was a different kind of improvising.”

He returned to his solo career last year to allow more time with his family rather than tour the world – indeed his family is set to join him this weekend for his Rye International Jazz Festival debut.

The image on the front of Anything But Look is of a kaleidoscope – reflecting the many different influences going into the album. It mixes jazz improvisation with soul, instrumentals with vocal tracks, with guest appearances from longtime collaborators Omar, Will Downing, who Rebello first met when he was 20, and former Incognito vocalist Joy Rose.

“The new album was going to be as a piano trio,” he says. “But I thought there were so many piano trio albums around, everyone seemed to be doing them.

“I love singing songs. I love soul music as well as instrumental jazz. I realised it could be everything together. I can do what I like!

“I had the feeling the album was writing itself. It’s like a documentary of my life in a way.”

Later this year he will join longtime Sting guitarist Dominic Miller on a tour of Asia.

But before then this Rye show will see Rebello join forces with drummer Jeremy Stacey and vocalist Joy Rose, to recreate both tracks from the latest release and his previous five albums.

“I last went to Rye as a kid,” he says. “I used to play in an orchestra and do music courses in Rye – the first time I went I must have been 13...”

Rye International Jazz And Blues Festival: Jason Rebello Quartet
The Jazz Lounge, Rye Community Centre, Conduit Hill, Rye, Saturday, August 23

Starts 7.30pm, tickets £18. Visit ryejazz.com