"Actor: Elvin Jones"

• Zachariah | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Advertised in 1970 as "the first electric Western", Zachariah is an endearingly pretentious effort that prefigures such genre oddities as Jodorowsky's El Topo and Alex Cox's Straight to Hell. The story is the archetypal one about two friends who become gunslingers and must inevitably face off against each other in the finale, but it's treated here as if it Meant Something Deeper--which means that after enjoying 75 minutes of violence we can all agree that peace and love and harmony is on the whole better for children and other living things. Curly haired farmboy Zachariah (John Rubinstein) and eternally grinning apprentice blacksmith Matthew (Don Johnson) are the fast friends who run away from home to join up with a gang of outlaws known as the Crackers (played by hippie folk-rock collective Country Joe and the Fish). These apparent 19th-century Westerners tote electric guitars and are given to staging free festival freak-outs at one end of town to distract from the bank robbery at the other. The boys soon hook up with Job Cain (Elvin Jones), an all-in-black master gunfighter who is also an ace drummer (his solo is impressive), but then drift apart as Zachariah has a liaison with Old West madame Belle Starr (Pat Quinn) in a town that consists of fairground-style brightly painted wooden cut out buildings (a gag reused in Blazing Saddles), then gets rid of his outrageous all-white cowboy outfit to settle down on a homestead and grow his own dope and vegetables. Matthew, of course, goes for the black leather look after outdrawing Cain, and comes a gunning for the only man who might be faster than him, but the hippie-era message is once these kids have killed everyone else they can still make peace with each other and the desert or something, man. Aside from a Beatle-haired teenage Johnson making a fool of himself by over-emoting to contrast with Rubinstein's non-performance, the film offers a lot of beautiful "acid Western" scenery and excellent prog rock and bluegrass music from the James Gang, White Lightnin' and the New York Rock Ensemble. Comedy troupe the Firesign Theatre (huge on album in 1970) provided the script, which explains satirical touches like the horse-and-buggy salesman (Dick Van Patten) spieling like a used car dealer and the madame's claim to have had affairs with gunslingers from Billy the Kid to Marshal McLuhan. The DVD extras are skimpy, but the print quality is outstanding. --Kim Newman

• Jazz Icons - John Coltrane - Live In '60, '61 And '65 | DVD | (01/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jazz Icons: John Coltrane provides an epic 95-minute overview of a true giant of 20th-century music. Three separate shows reveal Coltrane's ascending creative arc from hard bop innovator as a member of the Miles Davis Quartet in 1960 to consummate bandleader in 1961 to unrivalled jazz visionary in 1965. This DVD not only features Trane's classic quartet with Elvin Jones (drums), Jimmy Garrison (bass) and McCoy Tyner (piano), but also spotlights him onstage with other jazz legends including Stan Getz, Eric Dolphy and Oscar Peterson. Includes mind-blowing versions of his signature tunes My Favorite Things and Impressions.

• Elvin Jones-Jazz Machine | DVD | (23/06/2008) from £19.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (9.10%)   |  RRP £21.99

  ELVIN JONES: JAZZ MACHINE Touted by life magazine as the world's greatest rhythmic drummer and described by percussion icon Louie Bellson as Mother Earth coming alive with syncopation it would be impossible to overstate the importance of drummer Elvin Jones in the evolution of current and mainstream Jazz. This historic concert DVD features Elvin Jones playing with the thunderous power that reverberated throughout not only the Jazz community but all of music helping Jones move the drum kit from the back of the club to the forefront of music. Sonny Fortune - Saxophone Flute Chip Jackson - Bass Ravi Coltrane - Saxophone Willie Pickens - Piano Elvin Jones - Drums Song Selections: Is There A Jackson In The House? Ray El Doll Of The Bride

• John Coltrane - Impressions Of Coltrane | DVD | (16/04/2007) from £13.48   |  Saving you £0.51 (3.60%)   |  RRP £13.99

  This programme features the great jazz man John Coltrane in nine rare television performances shot in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. Coltrane appears in dazzling extended solos showcasing his trademark ""sheets of sound"" and demonstrates his mastery of tenor alto and soprano sax and the unique artistry he brought to innovations in jazz and to music as a whole. This collection has both breadth and depth. Four of these performances are led by Miles Davis and Miles also works out his huge orchestral ensemble under the direction of Gil Evans. The rest of the programme is given over to the John Coltrane Quartet. Featuring rare footage and beautiful music from one of the great icons of jazz. Tracklist: 1: Alabama 2: Impressions 3: Afro Blue 4: So What (with Miles Davis) 5: The Duke (with Miles Davis) 6: Blues for Pablo (with Miles Davis) 7: New Rhumba (with Miles Davis) 8: My Favourite Things (with Eric Dolphy) 9: Impressions (with Eric Dolphy)

• Jaki Byard - Anything For Jazz / Elvin Jones - Different Drummer | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  Jaki Byard: Anything For Jazz / Elvin Jones: Different Drummer