JAZZ BEAT: Marilyn Maye headlines the 2016 Prairie Village Jazz Festival on Saturday

Marilyn Maye appeared on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show more often than any other singer: 76 times. Longtime Kansas City residents remember her 11 years at the Colony Steakhouse. She has performed with the Kansas City Symphony and with the New York Pops in Carnegie Hall. Ella Fitzgerald described her as “the greatest white female singer in the world.” But none of these is the real reason to see Marilyn Maye in concert. The point of taking in her set at this year’s Prairie Village Jazz Festival is bearing witness to an icon who, in her mid-80s, still owns the stage. She sings with the verve and unbridled joy of a classic entertainer, one who continues to deliver the Great American Songbook like no other vocalist. Maye headlines the festival on Saturday night. Ahead of her, Dan Thomas and Voyage, Sons of Brazil and Chris Hazelton’s Boogaloo 7 warm up the crowd.

2016 Prairie Village Jazz Festival
3-10:30 p.m. (Marilyn Maye at 9) Saturday, September 10, at 7700 Mission Road ($5)