Peer Munck is no Mark Sanford, but he does a good mea culpa. Munck, whose Chicago-based company MunckMix produces the JazzFest Live series of recordings from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival each year, addressed a series of complaints that have mounted this year with a simple “I screwed up.”

Since 2004, the ambitious JazzFest Live venture has offered fest goers the chance to take home (or acquire via mail order or download) complete recordings of several dozen performances. These...