Laurie Pepper and the Pirates

Laurie Pepper is one smart cookie. When I interviewed her for   my Wall Street Journal article on business-minded spouses of deceased jazz greats (Laurie is Art Pepper's widow), she told me the secret of her success: Making friends with worldwide collectors of bootleg recordings and releasing the material they send her on her Widow's Taste label. It's a brilliant move when you think about it. Why hate when you can love and make money?

Now Laurie has outdone herself—and has likely started a reactive trend. Recently, Disconforme, a Spanish label, released an album featuring Art Pepper performing at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago in 1977.  It was issued under the Sunburn label. Somehow the label obtained the tapes Laurie had in her possession but had never released. The Spanish label issued the material in Europe.

As most people know, European copyright laws allow labels there to issue anything recorded more than 50 years ago without asking permission or paying royalties. This law has created a hornet's nest of opposition here, where labels routinely find that their remastering efforts are cloned and resold by European labels for less.

But rather than get mad, Laurie last week got even. Here's what she told me yesterday:

"I bought a copy of the album, transferred it into my iTunes library, uploaded the recording to my label [Widow's Taste], registered the album at CD Baby and now I'm offering it as a $4.75 download. I even scanned the photo used on their cover as well as the liner notes. All in all, I spent $150 to get all of this done and promote its availability. If I make back my $150, I'll make a profit."

If you can't beat 'em, plunder 'em.

JazzWax notes: Art Pepper: Jazz Showcase, Chicago (Widow's Taste) is available at CDBaby.com here.

Comments

[Doug Zielke]

What a wonderful surprise!! Laurie shot me an e-mail about this release just yesterday. Of course, in the interest of defeating piracy (and being a huge Pepper fan), I bought a download asap.

Arrrr... Matey, there's a lot of good Art in there for a paltry sum. Dig the Chi-town sidemen I for one had never heard before. And worth the price alone, Art and the band do a great rendition of "The Trip". The sound quality is excellent, so don't just play this one on your ipod.

Thanks once again to Laurie. You continue to please AP fans with a constant stream of treats.

[Laurie Pepper]

Hey, Marc. This was recorded in 1977. Less than fifty years ago! They're just outright thieves. love and kisses, L.

[Larry Kart]

I believe I was at that Pepper-Jazz Showcase performance and reviewed it for the Chicago Tribune. If I recall correctly, I came back the next night and Laurie, prompted by my friend Chuck Nessa, came up to me with Art and said something like, "Art -- here's the man who wrote that nice review." Art, for one reason or another, was almost completely tongue-tied -- perhaps because the idea that another actual human being loved his music and had said so left him somewhat at a loss. There could have been other reasons, too. Boy, did he play beautifully that week!

[O'Sullivan, "Red"]

Oh - may I ask, who are the Chi-Town sidemen? Thanks in advance.