IT comes as a surprise to learn that trombone player Annie Whitehead has never played the National Centre for Early Music in York among her multitude of Yorkshire concerts over more than three decades.

"So I'm really looking forward to Sunday night," says Lancastrian Annie, who will make her NCEM debut in the company of Steve Lodder on piano and keyboards, Jennifer Maidman on bass and Liam Genockey on drums.

Annie started her career with Ivy Benson's All Girl Orchestra in the early 1970s and has since explored differing styles, whether working with Elvis Costello, Paul Weller, Joan Armatrading, Chris Rea and Bill Wyman, or being a founder member of Working Week, or playing on three Penguin Café Orchestra albums, Broadcasting From Home, Union Café and Concert Program.

Annie first formed her own band in 1984, releasing her first album as the leader of Mix Up, and subsequently she has taken a diverse path in the field of jazz and beyond. "I'm passionate about African music; Caribbean music; reggae and soul music, as well as jazz, and I'm interested in the crossover of that music," she says. "Brass band music is really moving; hymns are for the soul..."

...Music, music, music, Annie has always loved music, and her neighbours in her Oldham childhood played their part in her musical initiation. "I used to go and pick up my friend in the morning and her mum and dad would have their music on: reggae, ska, Blue Beat from Jamaica," she recalls.

This led her to soul music and brass bands too, and by the age of 12 Annie was playing in the school brass band, but not on the trombone. "No, I picked up the tenor horn first, but then I quickly moved on to the trombone as I wanted something a bit meatier – and my music teacher, Ron Ibbotson, was a trombone player too," she says.

"His brother Ray had a big band and jazz venue outside Oldham and Ron ran a big band, so he was a great mentor, as soon as he saw how enthusiastic I was to learn and play.

"I ended up playing with the Dobcross Brass Band, a village brass band, and we would enter competitions with big brass bands playing, which was a great opportunity as it was a cross-generational band."

Annie was 13 and eager to learn. "You meet people who've been playing music all their lives, and it was such a wonderful thing to be involved with as they're so encouraging to the young musicians," she says.

She progressed to the Manchester Youth Stage Band at 14, encouraged to do so by Alan Gregory, a peripatetic teacher at her school, and a life-long love of the trombone took a hold of her, but why had she picked the trombone?

"It's really fascinating because it's different to all the brass band instruments with valves as it has a slide," says Annie. "I saw George Chisholm [the Glasgow jazz trombonist] on TV and I just knew I wanted to earn my living playing music and playing in a variety of styles, which I liked about the trombone, as it can be played in different styles and in orchestras too.

"A trombone is kind of like a vocal instrument, which is great for me as I'm not a singer. My playing is really melodic, as melody and rhythm are the things I most enjoy: the melodies of hymns and the rhythm of soul music, ska and reggae are what I'm naturally drawn to."

Aside from Ron Ibbotson's tuition and "the odd lesson", Annie never attended a jazz course, but jazz had a magnetic force that pulled her in. "I'm self taught, I can read music, and I'm drawn to playing with other musicians who I can let get on with it, where they follow my chord sequences but there's lot of freedom in how they play," says Annie.

Such is the improvised nature of jazz playing in the concert forum. "There are always surprises for me and the other musicians and the audience, which is really important, because it's such an intimate thing, playing music, four people and an audience in a room: it makes such a connection," says Annie.

Sunday's audience can expect numbers from "pretty much all" of Annie's albums, such as Naked, Home, The Gathering and This Is...Rude. "I had a quartet called Rude because I wanted to see 'Annie Whitehead's Rude' on posters!," she recalls, laughing anew at the name.

A new album could emerge "probably next year". "I've got a new studio space in Margate so that's spurred me on with lots of pieces that I've been working on," says Annie. "I'll be looking to make the album in early 2017."

Annie Whitehead Quartet play National Centre for Early Music, York, on Sunday at 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk