AMNA NAWAZ: Unless you're a longtime jazz aficionado, you might only know the names and music of a handful of stars and legends.

But what about all those who've built a life working in this art form, sometimes struggling, other times reaching bigger audiences, always having the respect and gratitude of their peers?

A new fellowship honors them and offers financial support in their later years.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown has that story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

HERLIN RILEY, Musician: So here it is.

JEFFREY BROWN: At 68 years young, New Orleans-born-and-raised jazz drummer Herlin Riley is ready to bring a smile with his tambourine and back a band on stage, from childhood to today, practicing, performing, teaching.

He's worked hard to make a life in jazz, including playing with the likes of giants such as Wynton Marsalis and Ahmad Jamal.

HERLIN RILEY: It takes commitment.

It takes commitment and also to be -- to recognize where you stand of the people who are around you, your peers.

Am I good enough that I can make a living?

Am I good enough to be accepted?

Am I good enough that I can -- I will be getting the phone calls to make a living?

And... JEFFREY BROWN: Because you don't always know.

HERLIN RILEY: You don't always know.

But I tell my students all the time that, if you're going into music for any other thing other than the passion and the love of it, you should do something else.

JEFFREY BROWN: At a recent concert at New York City Winery, Riley performed as part of the inaugural class of the Jazz Legacies Fellowship, 20 musicians, all 62 and older.

The fellowship comes with $100,000 to use as the musicians want for creative projects they always hope to take on, or for housing, medical and other personal needs.

The four-year program is funded by the Mellon Foundation, for the record, also an underwriter of PBS News, in partnership with the Jazz Foundation of America, and honors seasoned jazz musicians who may not have achieved huge popular success, but have continued to work and contribute to the art form they love.

Another jazz legacy fellow, 90-year-old pianist Valerie Capers.

VALERIE CAPERS, Musician: Ninety years old, that's ridiculous.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's ridiculous, but you're still doing all these things.

So you're not stopping anything.

VALERIE CAPERS: Oh, no.

JEFFREY BROWN: Still at it, but remembering well the early days.

VALERIE CAPERS: My challenges in jazz are to -- as you say, to move into it and to be able to maintain myself for this work, you're right, quite a period of time.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: Blind since age 6, Capers studied classical music at the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind.

But she also fell in love with jazz.

Her father was a friend of Fats Waller.

And she recalls having to hide her new passion from her piano teacher.

VALERIE CAPERS: She had no use for dealing with anything that would be jazz or that would be anything like that.

JEFFREY BROWN: Anything but classical music.

VALERIE CAPERS: That's right.

That's right, none whatsoever.

JEFFREY BROWN: Capers ended up taking Saturday classes at Juilliard to get her jazz fill.

VALERIE CAPERS: It was exciting just to be around who were playing this music that I just loved and enjoyed so much.

The music brought smiles and laughter and energy when you would play the music.

They would just enjoy it.

JEFFREY BROWN: Capers went on to a long career, including leading a trio, playing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, and decades of teaching.

Another veteran pianist and newly minted fellow, 80-year-old George Cables.

The native New Yorker grew up seeing Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and John Coltrane and was hooked.

GEORGE CABLES, Musician: Hearing the music is one thing.

Seeing it and being there while it's being made and watching an iconic figure like Thelonious Monk is something else.

JEFFREY BROWN: Through the years, Cables has played with jazz legends including Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon.

But his career hasn't been without obstacles, not only keeping up a working routine, but dealing with serious health problems, including a liver-kidney transplant and the amputation of a leg.

GEORGE CABLES: They were there, things that I had to go through in order to do the things that I want to do.

This kind of thing, the music is a wonderful thing to be involved with this music with jazz especially, because it's a living music.

It's always changing.

But the business is kind of difficult.

So it's good to know that there may be fewer things to worry about or to be as concerned about as I may have been.

MELANIE CHARLES, Musician: I feel like the music industry can be a bit ageist.

We have heard time and time again important jazz musicians who shifted the sound, who passed away poor, struggling, had to do a GoFundMe to put them to rest in a proper way.

And that always breaks my heart.

JEFFREY BROWN: Melanie Charles is a jazz singer, flutist, composer and producer.

At 37, she's a generation or two younger than the 20 fellows.

But she says she was honored to be on the selection committee of professional musicians and scholars that picked the first group.

MELANIE CHARLES: If you don't have a cult following, people, you will go to Russia and people will know all your albums, but you're going to go home and you just might struggle financially.

You might not be able to pay your rent or your mortgage, or you might have an album that you want to finish, your life's work, that you have never been able to have the budget to make it happen.

JEFFREY BROWN: A protege of 87-year-old jazz bassist Reggie Workman, who was her teacher in college and one of the 20 musicians selected, Charles says a common thread among the fellows is their commitment to the next generations.

MELANIE CHARLES: A lot of the jazz masters, you find that in the career, they're always hiring younger musicians.

Why is that?

It's because they understand that that fresh sound is so important to pushing the music forward and it keeps them bright and fresh.

JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, several of the band members playing with Valerie Capers at this performance were musicians she's taught.

VALERIE CAPERS: Oh, I get tremendous satisfaction because it's almost like a parenthood in a sense, because you are passing on to others that are close to you who have spent time with you.

JEFFREY BROWN: George Cables says this fellowship has energized him.

He's writing new music, collecting and organizing older works into one volume.

So you're 80 years old, you're still writing music and you're still performing music.

GEORGE CABLES: That's what I do.

That's my life, and that -- actually, that makes -- that gives me breath, that gives me life, that gives me energy.

That makes life worthwhile and meaningful.

JEFFREY BROWN: As for drummer and tambourine man Herlin Riley, he too intends to play on.

(MUSIC) (APPLAUSE) JEFFREY BROWN: Thank you so much.

HERLIN RILEY: Thank you so much, Jeff.

Thanks for having me.

JEFFREY BROWN: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in New York.