05/03/02

Maye's in, 'Fiddler' out for concert
By Steve Penn, The Kansas City Star

s the Coda  Jazz  Fund  flourishes, the lineup for the fund 's benefit concert continues to evolve.

Here's the latest on the performers: "Fiddler" is out, but one of the area's finest female vocalists is in.

Claude "Fiddler" Williams, one of the city's premier entertainers, was scheduled to perform at the Coda  Jazz  Fund  concert on May 17.

But Williams, 94, will be unable to perform. While helping his wife prepare dinner on April 18, Williams slipped and fell as he reached for a plate. He fractured the arm he uses to clutch his violin.

"He'd love to be a part of it," his wife, Blanche Williams, told me. "Hopefully in the future, he can hold a performance that will benefit the fund . He'll be there that night in spirit."

I wish Williams, a local institution, a speedy recovery.

Meanwhile, singer Marilyn Maye has agreed to perform at the benefit concert.

Maye, a Kansas City fixture, made her national debut in the early 1960s on the "Steve Allen Show."

Allen heard a recording of Maye and then went to see her while she was performing at the Colony Steak House on Broadway, a gig she had from 1959 to 1970. Her first album, in 1965, "Meet Marvelous Marilyn Maye," garnered a best new artist Grammy nomination. Maye performed 76 times on "The Tonight Show" during the Johnny Carson era.

The latest on the fund  raising is that the Coda  Jazz  Fund  continues to grow. Since the fund  was established on April 14, $4,260 has been raised.

The fund  has received two $1,000 contributions. One of those came from Negro Leagues baseball legend Buck O'Neil.

Attached to O'Neil's check was a note that read: "Having listened to these guys from 18th and Vine to the subway, I'm sorry that I have as little to give."

I asked O'Neil why he made such a gesture.

"It was the right thing to do," he told me. "I remember those guys. I know the lives they lived. I knew they didn't have insurance. It just feels good that I'm able to do it."

What a great man. And what a wonderful example he sets.

Jane Milligan contributed $200 in honor of her late husband, Thomas Milligan, a jazz  lover.

"It's very heartwarming that you have taken this step," Milligan wrote. "Jazz  musicians have and still do give us so much pleasure. May jazz  live on forever."

What some people might not know is that before there was a Coda  Jazz  Fund , there was MEAF.

Like the Coda  Jazz  fund , the Musicians Emergency Assistance Fund  was initiated after a column in The Kansas City Star in 1992. Written by Art Brisbane, now publisher of The Star, the column was the catalyst that started the MEAF.

Ten years later, the fund  is still helping musicians by paying utility bills and purchasing instruments, as well as other necessities.

"The fund  is one of the things we are most proud of," said John Leisenring, president of the Jazz  Ambassadors. "We've helped numerous musicians over the last few years."

The new fund  will allow the Jazz  Ambassadors to concentrate on needs other than burials and funerals. "Coda  will free us up to help musicians with their living expenses," Leisenring said. "Now MEAF can be more involved in the lives of living jazz  musicians."

The Coda  Jazz  Fund  now has a Web site. To find out more go to www.codajazzfund.org.

Tickets for the benefit concert are available at Ticketmaster and at the Gem Theater, 1615 E. 18th St. To donate, make checks payable to the Coda  Jazz  Fund  and mail to: