AN evening of jazz nostalgia beckons at Ilminster Arts Centre on Friday, August 17, when Annika Skoogh pays tribute to Anita O’Day.

Anita O’Day – who died in 2006 aged 87 - was an American jazz singer widely admired for her sense of rhythm and improvisation.

A true original, she has been described as ‘ the toughest, most dramatic and most fiercely swinging of all jazz singers’.

Somerset County Gazette:

O’Day is best remembered for her performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in the States, for which she wore a spectacular black dress, white gloves and large ostrich feather hat.

Devon-based singer Annika Skoogh has put together a group with some of the finest musicians in the South West to authentically recreate the Anita O’Day sound.

Tickets £15. Available from the Arts Centre or calling 01460 54973.