This varied collection is drawn largely from recordings made in 1964 and 1965, with a few tracks added from a 1987 gig in Hollywood. Nina plays piano on most of them. 

The range of Nina's compositional styles is impressive: The collection kicks off with a straightforward pop number, Sugar in My Bowl, and then slides into a show piece, Jim Crow. She offers gospel, cabaret, protest songs, and the classic The Last Rose Of Summer, with lyrics by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852). 

In concert, Nina Simone would mix her own work in with her covers, but the music industry has tended to focus away from her composition. She came into music singing and playing in cocktail bars, and she used to improvise around well-known tunes. From there, she started to write her own material. 

In some respects, her cover material is much superior to her composition. If one were to pick the very best of Nina Simone's work from her 40 or so albums, only a few of the songs in this collection would feature in it, but nevertheless it's a very welcome release for Simone fans. These are the songs that meant most to her, and her enthusiasm and sparkle carries them through.