The latest releases reviewed

NINA SIMONE Live at Montreaux 1976 Eagle Vision ***

Part of a series of Montreux Jazz Festival concerts now available for the first time on DVD, this is something of a mixed bag. While Simone was undoubtedly one of the most provocative and soulful of singers (she died in 2003), her live performances ranged from sublime and inspiring to deliberate self-sabotage. Thankfully, she's in good form here, from the overtly dramatic opening (she stands still before a baying audience, demanding their silence - and they submit) and the on-stage argument with a hapless roadie/technician to a spellbinding version of Jacques Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas. Extras include bonus tracks from Simone's Montreux appearances in 1987 and 1990. And for once in these bargain in-concert DVDs, the sleeve notes are decent. www.eagle-rock.com Tony Clayton-Lea

SHARON SHANNON AND BIG BAND Live at Dolan's Daisy Discs ***

Sharon Shannon's breathtaking musicality is beyond compare: her ability to meld the raw bar with the flightiest tunes puts the wiliest of jazz collaborators in the shade. Yet her live performance, with a band populated by a who's who of trad (from Gerry "Banjo" O'Connor to Solas's Winnie Horan and guitarist Jim Murray), not to mention Richie Buckley and James Delaney on sax and keyboards, still manages to create a gaping chasm between performer and viewer. For every glorious Tune for a Found Harmonium there's a stray offspring that jars the sensibilities. In particular, Jack Maher's mannered Don't Give Up goes one blues bar too far. Live at Dolan's throws into sharp relief the best and worst of Shannon's generous spirit - soaring skywards on the delicate The Mighty Sparrow and buckling beneath the weight of too many musicians eking every last morsel of life from a confusion of tunes. www.sharonshannon.com Siobhán Long