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By | Friday, September 26, 2008

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"Jazz Icons: Series 3" (Naxos, 8-DVD box set, $89.99) — America in the 1960s wasn't always a welcoming place for jazz musicians. Many of the best headed to Europe, where adoring audiences almost guaranteed successful tours. Part of the legacy of that era, fittingly enough, is a treasure trove of video recordings made in European television studios and concert halls — footage rarely, if ever, seen since it was made.

Naxos has been dredging through those forgotten vaults, releasing stunning DVDs of everyone from John Coltrane to Ella Fitzgerald. With the debut this month of a seven-disc collection of performances by Sonny Rollins, Oscar Peterson, Lionel Hampton, Nina Simone, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, it looks as if the company has another winner — an often riveting look at some of jazz's greatest players in their prime.

Shot between 1958 and 1975 in studios and small concert halls, the black-and-white videos don't really capture the vitality of a club performance, and the settings sometimes can seem a little formal. However, that's all forgotten in the intensity of the playing. To see Mr. Evans, head bowed deeply into the keyboard, performing "My Foolish Heart" in an intimate 1964 performance, or Miss Simone giving a playing-for-keeps account of "Mississippi Goddam" is to discover depths that audio recordings don't always reveal. Also, who can resist the sly charm on Mr. Peterson's face when he lets loose some unexpected changes? Or Mr. Kirk's wildly kinetic mastery of the half-dozen instruments draped around his neck?

Recording quality varies from very good to excellent, and with more than seven hours of material on these discs, there's enough to keep any jazz lover happily exploring for days. The DVDs can be bought separately or as a boxed set, and there are surprises on every disc; check out trumpeter Clark Terry scat-singing at the end of Cannonball Adderley's set or the jaw-dropping virtuosity of Danish bassist Niels Henning Orsted-Pedersen — who was all of 19 years old in this recording with Sonny Rollins.

— Stephen Brookes

Iron Man (Paramount Home Entertainment, two-disc special collector's edition, $22.99; single-disc edition, $16.99) — "Iron Man" screenwriters Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus usually aren't keen on seeing their scripts change on a daily basis. They made an exception for the superhero smash, which hits DVD on Tuesday.

Not only did Mr. Fergus and Mr. Ostby, who previously teamed up on "Children of Men," have to incorporate elements of a previous story treatment into their script, they faced a group of actors all too eager to improvise their lines.

"This was such an unusual process, such a collaboration," Mr. Fergus says of watching "Iron Man" evolve daily on the set. "We got into the experience. Leave your ego out of this one. If you wear the 'precious writer' hat, you'll go crazy."

Getting to that point wasn't easy.

They had to stare down a stack of comic books sent to them by Marvel Comics before the screenwriting process could begin. They pored over the issues, consulted with director Jon Favreau and got feedback from Marvel executives. Ultimately, the film's production deadline forced them to simplify.