NO MATTER that I have never heard of Nikki Yeoh or her impressive musical career - once I speak to her, I'm hooked, as the woman is a veritable dynamo.

Verbose and interesting, with an incredibly modern and accessible outlook on music, she chats to me, the journalist, like an old mate - and that's not common.

She'll be bringing her own brand of original compositions to The Anvil, along with her occasional performance partner Cleveland Watkiss, who, along with Courtney Pine, was one of the founding members of the Jazz Warriors big band in 1985.

"I met Cleveland years ago - I knew him from the scene, but we hadn't actually worked together until about three years ago," she explains. "When I was struggling I used to join in sessions, which is where I met Courtney Pine. Then I went to Courtney's CD launch and met up with Cleveland again and that time it was just right.

"I had thought of collaborating in that way with a lot of people but there were complications where they were busy, or I was busy and so on. There's a common language all musicians have, and Cleveland and I were really open to each other's ideas and had a mutual respect. Even though we are both band-leaders we gave each other some space and so it worked."

Nikki has been grafting away for years now, working on her music in a variety of different gigs and guises. Since starting her own group Infinitum in 1993, she is part of one of the most innovative bands around, playing jazz which really opens itself up to encompass most forms of musical expression. But in the early days, she remembers that a crisis of identity sent her down the wrong path.

"I was so pro-women but then I reassessed it. I was trying to explore my boundaries and didn't enjoy it because I was doing something that wasn't true, like when I did a Yazz video in which I had to wear a blonde wig. Then there was one Top of the Pops appearance with a band called Clock - I've done stuff to pay the bills!"

And she accounts with great clarity how being a female in the industry has affected her.

"I'm into the visual side of music but I'm not going to be happy with some bloke saying to me 'you have to wear that'. If I looked like Hilda Ogden but sounded great maybe I wouldn't get that gig and I'm not down with that. I feel like I want to grow old in this career and looks aren't about that. It's all about your heart."

Cleveland is her partner for this gig and her band is made up of men - does she ever yearn for a little bit of female company?

"No, because when musicians are good, they're good - that's how I like to be judged as well. For the moment, there are no boundaries with my group. The guys are really open and have incredible ability. Similarly with Cleveland, we've developed that.

"But on the 1998 Women Take Centre Stage Tour, I was performing with people like Holly Slater, the young musician of the year, and Caroline Taylor and there was one token guy playing bass. I'm so used to being the only girl in a band getting ready for a gig by myself in my own dressing room. But with this one, we were all getting ready together, doing our make-up and I was like 'This is so cool!'."

Nikki's talent as a composer has been recognised with recent commissions including a piece for the unique six piano group Piano Circus, on a long list which includes Infinitum Plus for the 1996 Bath Festival and a commission by pianist Joanna McGregor for a series of short pieces for six pianos. Does she ever alter her own style for the person who has commissioned the piece?

"Sometimes, when I'm writing for more classical guys, I'm aware of how they're going to hear or feel it. But I do try not to bend it. I wrote a commission for the National Youth Orchestra in Scotland and, even though it was for kids, I just wrote it as I would normally do. They thought it was so hard at the beginning, but we rehearsed for a week and it sounded great. They were so impressed not be patronised."

And will her collaborations continue?

"Everything helps everything else. I'm just back from working with hip-hop guys in 'Philly' and if I go and write stuff for the band, I incorporate the groove into it. A tutor of mine, Ian Carr, who incidentally wrote a Miles Davis at WAC, described me as having a 'a gargantuan appetite for musical experience'."

It's one which has served her well.

Nikki Yeoh and Cleveland Watkiss will be appearing in The Forge at The Anvil on Thursday, beginning at 8pm. For tickets, contact the box office on 01256 844244.