[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Pioneer Funeral Fund

[dhs at ev1.net]

Dear Listers:

I found the following article in the Austin American-Statesman.  I hope you
enjoy it.

Regards,
Dave Stoddard
Round Rock, TX


Funeral Fund Provides for Jazz Pioneers
By STEVE BRISENDINE
Associated Press Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)--They soared with Bird and got down with the Count,
putting the intersection of 18th and Vine on every jazz fan's map.

``It was the Kansas City style,'' said 87-year-old pianist and bandleader
Jay ``Hootie'' McShann, who gave sax icon Charlie ``Bird'' Parker his first
steady gig, in 1940. ``They knew it on the East Coast. They knew it on the
West Coast. They knew it up north, and they knew it down south.''

But one by one, the city's jazz pioneers are falling silent. And after a
lifetime of playing for a living, some musicians can't afford the cost of
dying.

That's where the Coda Jazz Fund steps in.   The fund bought headstones for
bassist David Daahoud Williams and trumpeter-bandleader Oliver Todd, who lay
for years in unmarked graves. Williams was only a few yards away from the
elaborate slab covering Parker's resting place.

The fund also paid to mark the graves of entertainer Speedy Huggins and
pianist-singer Elbert ``Coots'' Dye. The fund was there when Rudolph
``School Boy'' Dennis, who stepped into McShann's band when Parker left,
died with a month's worth of fixed income--$538 _ to his name.

``This was a man who played with (Count) Basie and Bird,'' said Dennis'
sister-in-law, Barbara Dennis. ``Charlie Bird stayed at his house. He knew
him like I know my own children.''

The Coda Jazz Fund paid for Dennis' funeral and cremation--down to the
programs and a courtesy car for the family.   ``It wasn't just, 'We'll pay
half,' or, 'We'll pay so much and you pay the rest,''' said Dennis' niece,
Stephanie Adams. ``They took care of everything. I call them our undercover
angels.''

In music, the coda marks the spot where a repeated section skips ahead,
usually to a point near the end of a composition.  ``It's not the end, but
it points to the end,'' said Steve Penn, creator of the fund and a columnist
for The Kansas City Star. ``This is sort of a coda to these guys' lives.''

Penn is a native of Kansas City, Kan., and a part-time trumpet player. He
was inspired to start the fund by a chance nightclub encounter shortly after
guitarist Sonny Kenner's death in January 2001.

Kenner's daughter was in the club, where he had often played, and was
selling copies of his compact discs to pay for the upcoming funeral.
``We started talking about all the fund-raisers they were going to have so
they could bury him,'' Penn said. ``I thought, 'That's just terrible.' But I
saw the goodwill. People were just snapping up those CDs.''

After securing his newspaper's sponsorship, Penn began putting things
together with the help of Kansas City's jazz community. The fund officially
launched in April 2002, with its first benefit concert a month later. All
the performers were from, or had ties to, Kansas City.
The second concert was May 17 at the Gem Theatre in the 18th and Vine Jazz
District. It sold out, even with ticket prices ranging from $50 to $100.

Among this year's featured acts were singer Karrin Allyson and alto sax
player Bobby Watson--both natives of the area who have earned national
acclaim. Another was St. Louis-based trumpeter Clark Terry, a former
featured performer on NBC's ``The Tonight Show'' when it was based in New
York.

Supporters of the fund say it also provides a way for Kansas City to
reconnect with its jazz heritage. ``The gift is never truly received until
you acknowledge the giver,'' said the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, who led the
drive to renovate the 18th and Vine district when he was mayor from 1991 to
1999.

``The Coda Fund is giving back something that the city forgot to give, and
that's recognition,'' said Barbara Dennis. ``This is the first time that
homage is really being paid to the people who made 18th and Vine what it is,
and that's the musicians.''