rhylcolinjones

This DVD in the 'Jazz Icons' series from Naxos/Reelin' In The Years comprises two black-and-white television shows recorded in Denmark in the 1960s - picture and sound quality very good. First is a trio set recorded live at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival in 1965; with Sonny Rollins (tenor sax) are the suitably Danish Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson on double bass and Alan Dawson on drums. This part runs 55 minutes; Mr Rollins is on killer form and this would be worth the price alone. The second show comes almost like a bonus. It is a quartet job recorded in a studio setting three years later, by which time Mr Rollins is sporting a full beard and beret. He plays a half-hour set with Kenny Drew (piano), same bass player and Albert 'Tootie Heath on drums. The DVD as a whole features the following tunes, listed here in alphabetical order: Darn That Dream, Four, I Can't Started, Oleo, On Green Dolphin Street, St Thomas, Sonnymoon For Two, There Will Never Be Another You and Three Little Words. Every one a winner.

Elis Regina was a Brazilian pop/jazz singer. She died in 1982 aged 36 and deserves to be remembered internationally because she was a natural singer with grace and precision; she had a lot of charisma and a disarming smile. This black-and-white television show is in parts and runs two and a quarter hours, at the end of which Ms Regina looks tired but happy. She has a boyish haircut and wears lots of jewelry with which she fiddles nervously at times, but the overall atmosphere is relaxed and intimate with a lot of close ups. The show was recorded in a studio without an audience, the lighting is high contrast like film-noir, and the sound is good enough for all but the extremely fussy – this is TV after all. Ms Regina is accompanied by her regular rhythm section: Cesar Camargo Mariano (piano) Luiz 'Luisao' Maia (bass guitar) and Paulo 'Paulinho' Braga (drums). The 17 songs include a couple of my favourites: 'Upa Neguinho' and 'Aguas De Marco'. Her happy songs will make you smile; her sad songs will break your heart. In between numbers she speaks - sometimes at length - in Portuguese. The only DVD version of the show so far (published by Trama in 2004) does not include subtitles, but the menu offers the option of playing only the songs.

Ken Russell made entertaining films; you would be unlikely to fall asleep during your first viewing of any of them. He was at the top of his game in the 1970s when 'Savage Messiah' was made (his previous film was 'The Boy Friend' starring Twiggy). This one is a biopic about French artist/sculptor Henri Gaudier portrayed here as unconventional, out-of-control, over-the-top, and his love for an older Polish woman writer. She is played by Dorothy Tutin who wins the film's acting honours hands down. The DVD released by Warner in 2011 has moments where the sound is slightly out of sync, especially during Helen Mirren's scenes; perhaps the editors were thinking about something else. Ms Mirren, in her late-20s here, cuts a striking figure as a suffragette and obliges us by appearing in her birthday suit.