ShareThis(JAZZ ICONS. 2007. NAXOS JAZZ ICONS. $119. EIGHT DISCS)Where to begin? Eight discs, a feast of exquisite performances on every one, and not only filmed beautifully (in black and white) but also offering superb sound quality that one wouldn't expect from recordings originally made in the '50s and '60s.The artists in the second series of "Jazz Icons" include Duke Ellington, Wes Montgomery, Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughan, Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane. The latter is filmed in Germany in 1960 and '61, and in Belgium in '65, with McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones playing on the last two dates. Stan Getz and Oscar Peterson guest on the earliest concert. Coltrane's two versions of "My Favorite Things" are both standouts. There are extraordinary moments of discovery throughout the series, such as the way Vaughan's voice and style deepen between her '58 concerts in Sweden and Holland and a Swedish date in '64.The three Mingus concerts, recorded within eight days, are memorable not only because of Mingus, but also for multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, performing just a few months before his death. Ellington is captured in only one concert, in Holland in '58, but it's a tour de force, showcasing such greats as Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves and Clark Terry, with vocals by Ozzie Bailey and Ray Nance, on such classics as "Mood Indigo," "Caravan" and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." The discs can be purchased separately, but the boxed set includes a bonus disc with cuts by Coltrane, Gordon and Vaughan. -- DAVID WIEGAND(ERASERHEAD/SHORT FILMS OF DAVID LYNCH.1967-1995. NOT RATED. RYKO/ABSURDA. $74.95)This boxed set is a short course in the formative years of master surrealist David Lynch. The cover uses one of the icons of radically independent film, a black-and-white shot of actor Jack Nance with an atom-bomb hairdo. The image is from "Eraserhead" (1977), the dark fantasy that put Lynch on the map.Nance portrays a troubled resident of a nightmarish industrial city who agrees to marry a woman (Charlotte Stewart) he has impregnated. She gives birth to one of the strangest offspring ever depicted on film, then abandons the infant and the Nance character. But the nonlinear plot is less important than the haunting and dreamy mood the director maintains. The version of "Eraserhead" offered here is the one that Lynch, famously finicky about technical matters, cleaned and remastered in 2000.The earliest of the six shorts in this box were made during the director's student days, and the most recent in the mid-'90s; the films range in length from less than a minute to 34 minutes. The moods are silly, somber or transgressive, with lots of menacing and sexual undercurrents. The strongest (and longest) of the six is "The Grandmother," in which a mistreated boy grows a supportive grandma by planting a seed in the ground. Each short is introduced by Lynch, but don't expect any sort of interpretation -- he doesn't do that. -- WALTER ADDIEGO(A CHINESE TORTURE CHAMBER STORY. 1995. NOT RATED. RYKO DISTRIBUTION. $24.95)In the early 1990s, Hong Kong filmmakers experienced a creative flowering. Their films were like American movies on amphetamines -- more lewd, more outrageous and more violent (yet strangely more innocent) -- and they, in turn, had an influence on American directors, most notably Quentin Tarantino.Like all golden ages, this one ended sooner than expected, but the movies remain fresh, and this entry, from 1995, coming late in the cycle, is one of the more outlandish products. Perhaps there was nowhere to go from here. The film tells the story of a young woman accused of murdering her husband by feeding him an aphrodisiac that caused his penis to get so big that it exploded. (There are frequent flashbacks to the love scene that precipitated the explosion, with the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody," which was featured in "Ghost," playing on the soundtrack. Very funny.)The film delineates the various tortures used in China and at times begins to seem like a senseless wallow in cruelty, but the humor frequently rescues it. A running motif of the male and female nature spirits, who keep colliding into each other at high velocity, becomes increasingly funny. Produced by Wong Jing ("Naked Killer"), this film does not aspire to the high reaches of art, but it's a singular creation, erotic and flamboyant and entertaining and absurd in its own unique way. -- MICK LASALLE(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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