MOBO-award winning saxophonist YoLanda Brown brings her improvised tour, Reggae Love Songs, to Watford Colosseum this Saturday and admits even she doesn’t know what’s going to happen.

“We have a set list and there’s the main part of the song and then the whole thing is all improvised.

"Every gig is different which is refreshing for me. We just work off the feeling of the audience; whether they look like they’re dancing, or they want a more relaxed listening experience.

“On this tour I always tell them it’s illegal if you don’t dance!” she laughs. “Different genres makes you want to do different things. Reggae music just makes you want to move a little bit.

“I let the audience know, be free. Don’t feel you have to act a certain way because you’re in a theatre. You’re allowed to get up and dance. You’re allowed to grab a loved one. It’s really, really fun and I get down with them.”

Chatting to YoLanda, it is clear that not only is this woman full of life – she won’t stop laughing – but full of surprises.

Before YoLanda’s career took off she was four years into a PhD in management science at the University of Kent, where she did the same undergraduate degree and a Masters in methods of social research, but she abandoned her thesis to focus on her music, It was a tough decision, but her decision was rewarded by the University of East London in 2010 when they made her an Honorary Doctor of Arts.

Her career so far has been full of amazing achievements.

“Being invited to Buckingham Palace was a big highlight, meeting the Queen and getting to speak to her about my journey so far.

“The wonderful thing about being a musician and being an artist is no two days are the same. Every day, there is a highlight to think about, just recently playing in a hospice for Princes Charles’s charity, Children in the Arts.

"These children are going through music therapy to find a way of getting them to communicate and just seeing them respond to the different styles of music that I was playing is a highlight for me, and very emotional.”

After two MOBOs (2008, 2009) and an Urban Music Award (2009), all for Best Jazz, meeting the Queen and an honorary title was undoubtedly deserved.

But amazingly, all her musical achievements are off the back of just one year learning the saxophone.

“I did GCSE music and I got an A star” she tells me, with a note of pride and touch of humour.

“Apart from that, I think I learnt the saxophone for about a year at school and then wanted to explore it for myself and learn about improvising and playing what I felt. So I went off to do my own thing.

“For me the saxophone is like a voice, it’s very soulful." I really just enjoyed playing by myself in my room, playing along to backing tracks and experiencing the emotion of music rather than thinking about the notes or what scale is this. I enjoyed that side of music more and I still do.”

And the surprises don’t stop there, YoLanda reveals her dream career , before music and before management science, was to be a racing driver and it turns out she’s been pretty lucky on that front: “Doing music has led me to be able to fulfil that, I do race at the moment. My video for Tokyo sunset, one of the songs on the album, was filmed in a formula 3 car and I met all the drivers and got to race myself.”

Watford Colosseum, Rickmansworth Road, WD17 3JN, Saturday, April 30, 8pm. Details: 01923 571 102