With the addition of bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius to their ranks in 1976, Weather Report cemented their standing as America's pre-eminent jazz-fusion band, playing sold-out international tours and generating impressive record sales. At the start of 1980 they recruited percussionist Bobby Thomas, Jr., and recorded this exhilarating live set for FM radio broadcast soon afterward at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. The complete broadcast is presented here in digitally remastered sound with background notes and images.

Charlie Parker & The Stars Of Modern Jazz, live at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve, 1949. Regarded by many as the apex of the bebop era, this remarkable Christmas concert featured a virtual who's-who of contemporary jazz giants, from Miles Davis and Stan Getz to Sarah Vaughan and Max Roach. But it's Charlie Parker who steals the show, with his legendary quintet, culminating in a heart-stopping rendition of "Ko Ko". Also features the following as bandleaders: Bud Powell, Kai Winding, Jimmy Jones, Lennie Tristano and Lee Konitz. Originally broadcast on WMCA Radio as Stars Of Modern Jazz, and MC'd by "Symphony Sid" Torin. The entire broadcast is presented here with background liner notes and images. Digitally remastered for greatly enhanced sound quality. An essential for all serious jazz fans.

Having played with Gary Burton, Jaco Pastorius and other leading fusion musicians, the prodigious Pat Metheny made his solo recording debut in 1976. The following year he released Watercolors, marking the start of his long collaboration with pianist Lyle Mays. That summer they played various dates (together with bassist Mark Egan and drummer Danny Gottlieb).

The renowned violinist Tasmin Little returns to Chandos with a line-up of three women composers whose lives share some features but also significant differences that illustrate the complex lives of female musicians. Clara Schumann, Dame Ethel Smyth and Amy Beach all came from families that encouraged their musical interests but balked, in varying degrees, at professional training and engagement. All three composers draw on the influence of Robert Schumann and Brahms; Beach and Smyth in particular were fond of metrical and motivic manipulation. Tasmin Little plays this music close to her heart with her usual warmth and dexterity.

Les fêtes de Paphos (The Festivals of Paphos) is an opéra-ballet in three acts (or entrées) by the French composer Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville. The work was described as a ballet héroïque on the title page of the printed score. Each act had a different librettist. Les fêtes de Paphos was first performed at the Académie royale de musique, Paris on 9 May 1758 and was a popular success. Mondonville recycled material from two of his previous operas for the first two acts, namely Erigone (1747) and Vénus et Adonis (1752), both originally composed for Madame de Pompadour's Théâtre des Petits Cabinets. The title of the work is explained in the preface to the printed score. Paphos was a city in Cyprus sacred to Venus, the goddess of love. "Reunited on the island of Paphos, Venus, Bacchus and Cupid decide to enliven their leisure in such a pleasant location by celebrating their first loves, and this gives rise to the following three acts and the title Les fêtes de Paphos."

Today, the five-string cello is treated as an exotic and rarely-played cousin of the standard cello. However, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was simply one of the many instruments used in the family of bass violins, and was particularly important for virtuosic sonatas and solos.

A limited-edition 4CD box set released to coincide with the cult shoegaze label’s 20th anniversary. It features 62 tracks, many of which are previously unreleased, plus rare remixes, showstopping live recordings and a shoegaze Christmas compilation. Includes Slowdive, Andy Bell (Ride), Emma Anderson (Lush), bdrmm, Whitelands and deary, plus remixes by Andrew Weatherall, James Holden, David Holmes, Daniel Avery and many more. Across the four discs, the box set tells the story of Sonic Cathedral from its humble beginnings as a club night in 2004 to its present-day position at the centre of the never-ending shoegaze revival, after playing a huge part in repopularising the once maligned genre over the past two decades.