JAM: October/November 2003 Issue: Hampton's Hot Licks

Dean Hampton

Share the Music, Pay the Price
In the August/September 2000 JAM, I asked, "Are You Stealing Music?" That's back when Napster was still going strong. They have since essentially died and have been replaced by many other peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing organizations. Now, the axe is finally falling on those who choose to steal the work of our artists.

In June 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that it was gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits against those who share substantial amounts of copyrighted music online. On September 8, the RIAA filed 261 lawsuits against chronic violators.

While I do not have Kazaa on my computer (probably the largest P2P service today), I do try to keep a finger to the pulse by using WinMX. Just a week before the RIAA filings, I looked for shared files of musicians with Kansas City ties. There was more available than my new 120 gig hard drive would hold. I noticed that a lot of the tunes I liked were being shared by one specific user. A WinMX function allows one to look at a user's downloadable file list. In this case, the "sharer" had well over 4,000 jazz titles
available. Judging by the titles I saw, most if not all were major jazz
label copyrighted music.

At 12 tunes per CD, that's over 300 CDs available for free downloading from just one person. If the RIAA nailed this guy for the minimum amounts in the lawsuits issued thus far, he would owe over $600,000! All users of Kazaa and Grokster were warned that their practices were illegal and that the lawsuits would be forthcoming. In the above case (hypothetical since this person's name is not on the list of those sued so far), is that penalty
enough, not enough, or too much? By law, the maximum penalty per copyright infringement is $150,000.

Welcome, Yoko!
Yoko Takemura is the only individual Sponsor member of the KC Jazz Ambassadors who lives outside the United States. Yoko is very dedicated to Kansas City jazz, and I can usually count on her to visit in September for three or four days. During her stay I can also plan on enjoying the hottest licks around because I know she wants to hear the very best.

This year's visit began on Saturday, September 6, with Country Club Plaza courtyard jazz by Alaadeen & Group 21. Later we headed to the Blue Room for Bobby Watson's outstanding evening of jazz. Sunday, late afternoon -- along with Fanny Dunfee and Steve Irwin -- we caught the wonderful Julie Turner (with Mike Ning and Brian Ruskin) at the Majestic Steakhouse. And we ended the evening at the Phoenix Piano Bar & Grill with entertaining solo piano and vocals by Rich Hill.

Monday evening things were just as hot at Jardine's for the release of Kathleen Holeman's new CD, Don't You Wonder (see "For the Record"). And what a great performance it was! We capped the night at Jilly's for some cool B3 from Everette DeVan and some rare and sensitive vocals by guitarist, Brian Harman.

Before the Blue Room gig on the 6th, we had a special meeting with Bobby Watson. Watson's CD, Tailor Made, with the Tokyo Leader's Big Band, is not available in the US, and only a limited number can be found in Japan. Yoko brought a dozen copies from Tokyo and Bobby was nice enough to autograph them all. They will be available from yours truly via my web site, www.webjazz.net (sound clips coming soon!). Email me at tailormade@webjazz.net if you are interested in a copy of this rare collector's item.

As always, Yoko left Kansas City with a stack of KC jazz CDs, most of which were donated by the artists and are destined to be played on the radio in Japan and Southeast Asia... a great way for our local jazz musicians to reach an audience on the other side of the globe.

Dean Hampton has been a member of the KC Jazz Ambassadors since 1990.