After the recent Grammy awarding ceremony, Esperanza Spalding attracted public attention again. This time with a lawsuit over unlawful usage of a photography for her latest album Radio Music Society (picture below the article).
The cover shows Spalding sitting on a boombox, which is actually a photography of a boombox stuck to the front of a wooden box. The mentioned boombox photo is allegedly Kevin Ryan‘s work and the contentious photo is part of his works that can be seen at Brooklyn’s gallery Galapagos Art Space.
Ryan wants Spalding to pay him compensation worth 500.000 American Dollars for violation of copyrights considering that Spalding has used the boombox photography for numerous materials and products she made profit with.
The photographer alleges he addressed the management of the successful young bassist and composer demanding credit among artist names who worked on the cover. Spalding’s management didn’t comment Ryan’s charges.
Esperanza Spalding got two Grammy’s at the recent awarding ceremony, for Best Vocal Jazz Album for Radio Music Society and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for the song City of Roses from the mentioned album. Last year she won the Grammy for Best New Artist becoming the first ever jazz artist to win in that category.
