The live album At The Village Gate is, without question, one of the finest jewels in Nina Simone's distinguished discography Album opener ‘Just In Time’ features a first half delivered almost in a whisper, like a secret confidence being shared, followed by a formidable piano solo and a dramatic switch to a full-throated vocal that powers the song home. Despite being cut from the show it was originally written for (Simple Simon), the Rodgers and Hart song ‘He Was Too Good To Me’ still managed to find its way into the Great American Songbook, recorded by Helen Merrill, Doris Day, Carmen McRae and – brilliantly here – by Simone Other unfathomably good things include the distinctly Bachian counterpoint with which she introduces ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’, the devastating account of ‘If He Changed My Name’, the ecstatic fervour she brings to ‘Children Go Where I Send You’, and the almost Lisztian virtuosity she channels in her extraordinary solo take on You'll Never Walk Alone’. For any listeners who are coming to Simone completely afresh, Ballads & Blues offers a useful starting point, containing a number of her signature songs including ‘I Loves You, Porgy’, ‘Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair’ and ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ (included as a bonus track). Conducted and arranged by Ralph Burns, Simone's version of ‘Solitude’ is especially beautiful.