Music on DVD

By Linda Laban

"Mission of Burma: The Definitive Editions I, II and III" (Matador) sees the Boston post-punk band's 1980s discs reissued once again - albeit meticulously remastered and including a full concert DVD with each. Burma's final Boston performances in 1983 are captured on "Live at the Bradford Hotel" and split between "Vs." and "The Horrible Truth About Burma". However, it's the fresh, vital band slashing its way into rock music history on the previously unreleased "Live at the Space" (1979) and "The Underground" (1980), which accompany "Signals, Calls, and Marches," that's truly definitive.

more stories like this"Duke Ellington at the Cote d'Azur with Ella Fitzgerald and Joan Miro" and "Duke: The Last Jam Session" (Eagle Rock) capture Ellington's elegant appetite for art and life. The first DVD, shot in the mid-1960s in the south of France, features Ellington with "the queen," as he calls Fitzgerald, and Spanish surrealist artist Joan Miro, who gives the jazz giant an art tour that he clearly laps up. Then, in the early '70s - with Ellington's face showing the strain of the lung cancer that took him soon after - he pulls off an astounding performance with Joe Pass, Ray Brown, and Louie Bellson.

Meanwhile, "HAARP" (Warner Bros) showcases British rock band Muse's sold-out performance at Wembley Stadium in 2007, on both CD and DVD. The latter is elegantly shot and, apart from some digital tinting, unembellished. The potent footage chronicles a consummate rock spectacle as the power trio (plus a touring keyboard player helping out) blasts out pop ballads, grinding metal, and disco punk before a 75,000-strong, utterly rapt audience.