The widow of Canadian musician Jeff Healey says a new album of the Jeff Healey Band being issued by a Winnipeg label was not authorized by either the late singer or his family.
Cristie Healey issued a statement saying she is "deeply and sadly disappointed" about the release of the album, Legacy Volume One, by Arbor Records.
"Cristie has basically asked that Jeff's fans ignore it. And from what we've heard of it, the quality is not such that Jeff would have approved of it," Richard Flohill, the late guitarist's publicist, told CBC News.
"She was notified that the record was coming out, but it was pretty well fait accompli and there was nothing she could do without a great deal of legal expense to create an injunction against it," Flohill said.
Steve McCauley of Arbor Records said his company has the legal right to release the material. "We did license it — we got the correct clearances,” he said in an interview Tuesday. "It's not about permission and what I want to say, it's not about just Jeff Healey — it's about three musicians in a band. The estate is certainly aware of what was going on."
The recording is a compilation of hits and old works by the Jeff Healey Band, which broke up in 2002.
Flohill said the project was pushed through by Tom Stephen, a drummer who parted ways with Healey in 2002.
Flohill said Healey and Stephen had a six-year dispute over both money and the rights to music by the Jeff Healey Band.
Toronto-based jazz and blues musician Healey, who died March 2 of cancer, would not have approved of the CD, Flohill said.
But Flohill admitted he does not know if the team handling Healey's estate approved the disc, as McCauley says.
"What I do know is when a band involves three musicians and one of the musicians does not give his permission to have this released, there is it seems to me if nothing else a moral obligation not to proceed with it," Flohill said.
He said Cristie Healey is not contemplating legal action over the release.
Healey had an existing contract with Stony Plain Records of Edmonton at the time of his death.
The label released the recording Mess of Blues, and plans a second posthumous release in 2009.
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