In the heyday of Kansas City jazz , people dressed up to go to the 18th Street clubs - men in suits, women in dresses and everyone "looking good," as singer Myra Taylor remembers it.

On Friday night, Kansas Citians dressed up again and filled the Gem Theater on 18th Street to hear some of the jazz  that made history and pay homage to its musicians.

The sold-out event was a benefit  concert for the Coda  Jazz  Fund, created recently to start paying burial expenses of jazz  legends whose bank accounts withered along with the local jazz  scene.

"It's the best thing I've seen anyone do in this city in a while," said Taylor, one of the featured performers and now in her 80s.

Former Mayor Emanuel Cleaver, the master of ceremonies, added: "One of the guys (musicians) said to me tonight, 'Finally, Kansas City cares.' I think his statement sums up what we're trying to say to them."

The concert featured some of Kansas City's favorite jazz  performers playing music of the greats who once walked 18th Street. The American Jazz  Museum All-Star Band performed Lester Young's "Every Tub." Mike Metheny and Gerald Dunn played Charlie Parker's "Segment." Marilyn Maye did a Fats Waller medley.

Jazz  is one of Kansas City's most cherished claims to fame. It's the music that made the city swing in the first half of the last century in "clubs, clubs, clubs, clubs," as Count Basie once wrote. But many say Kansas City's status as a jazz  town has slipped in recent years.

So Friday's concert - the main fund -raiser in an effort to raise $100,000 - had deeper significance to local jazz  enthusiasts. It represented a show of appreciation for the city's jazz  heritage. It was like a community hug for jazz  musicians.

"What you're seeing out there in a full house is a shattered and scattered jazz  community coming together," said singer Kevin Mahogany, who left Kansas City for Boston but came back to perform at the concert.

Donald Leming was one of the 500 people who paid $50 to $100 to attend. He's a Johnson Countian with an extensive collection of jazz  albums and CDs, but he doesn't go out to many local jazz  shows. He read about the concert and thought, "If I'm going to support jazz  in this city, I've got to go.

"I've felt I've taken so much without giving much back," he said. "I've enjoyed our jazz  heritage and I'm so proud of what we have, but I was concerned if I didn't help, it'll just be gone."

Until Friday, only 40 percent of the available tickets had been sold. But then people like U.S. Rep. Karen McCarthy sprang into action. She spent the day in blue jeans and tennis shoes walking into businesses on 18th Street and elsewhere, selling tickets.

"The musicians of this community put us on the map, and we need to give back to them," she said. "We ought to guarantee that the end of their life is one of dignity."

That's exactly the purpose of the Coda  Fund . It was launched by The Kansas City Star and is also sponsored by Sprint, the Kansas City Jazz  Ambassadors, KPRS and KCIY radio stations, Channel 41 and Phillips West Public Relations, among others. The fund  was named for the concluding passage of a musical composition.

Today, almost all the jazz  musicians in town are college-educated. Almost all of them have day jobs. But for the old-timers, the ones who helped establish Kansas City as a musical center, once 18th and Vine and the crowds dried up, they had nothing to fall back on. Some, like Sonny Kenner and David Daahoud Williams, died in poverty.

"When they got sick and old, they had no retirement income, no burial money," said Pam Hider Johnson, who's involved with the Elder Statesmen of Kansas City Jazz , which recognizes elderly musicians with Kansas City ties. "This fund  is going to give them the respect they deserve."

As Steve Penn, a columnist for The Star who proposed the fund, told the audience: "No local jazz  musician should die without being given a proper burial."

To reach Jeffrey Spivak, civic affairs reporter, call (816) 234-4416 or send e-mail to jspivak@kcstar.com.

How to help
To donate, make checks payable to the Coda  Jazz  Fund  and mail to:
    Coda  Jazz  Fund 
    P.O. Box 412116
    Kansas City MO 64141-2116

 

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE KANSAS CITY STAR