(CN) - A bass player who has performed with the likes of Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, the Jackson 5, and Stevie Wonder claims in court that Sony Music is selling unauthorized live recordings he made with Mile Davis in the 1970s.
In a complaint filed Thursday with a federal judge in Atlanta, Michael Henderson says the recordings at issue come from live performances he did with Davis in Berlin, Germany, New York City and Dietikan, Switzerland, and at various Newport Jazz Festivals in the early 1970s.
Henderson says he did not give permission for the session to be recorded and was unaware that it happened.
He says that in the summer of 2013, he was approached by Jeremy Schulberg, vice president of business and legal affairs for Sony, who asked for permission to release a different unauthorized recording.
Henderson says when he asked to be reasonably compensated, Schulberg replied, “We’ve been having this same problem with other band members, so we will just cancel the project.”
But according to the lawsuit, Sony didn't cancel the project. Instead, it went ahead and released the recordings as “Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4.”
Henderson says he played on at least 14 of the 40 songs that comprise the four-CD set.
He is seeking injunctive relief as well as unspecified statutory and punitive damages.
He is represented by John Seay of Atlanta, Georgia.
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