Singing and Playing for the Children : Concert: The organizers of Sunday’s benefit at The Palomino hope to raise up to $16,000 for UNICEF.

Country singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson, singer Jon Anderson of the band Yes, and former Isley Brothers member Ernie Isley will be among nearly 100 local players performing at a 14-hour benefit concert and auction Sunday at The Palomino.

The show, organized by longtime session drummer Eddie Tuduri, will benefit UNICEF’s rescue work with children in developing nations.

The North Hollywood concert is the 10th organized locally by Tuduri in recent years, most of which have regularly attracted a number of notable players from such chart-topping bands as Fleetwood Mac and Toto. Many of the musicians, Tuduri said, are friends and acquaintances that he can call and invite without going through a maze of agents, managers and others. But he was recently surprised by a phone call from Anderson, who volunteered to sing and hinted at bringing some of his Yes band members along with him for the 11:30 p.m. finale.

“Eddie’s thing is going to be fun,” Anderson said last week. “UNICEF is a very important thing in the ‘90s, and if anybody can add to that, it’s the best thing in the world.”

Anderson said he has rarely participated in benefit concerts, explaining that he isn’t often asked nor is he regularly available. Nonetheless, he is planning another benefit for UNICEF, a one-man show that would tour through what he calls “the unknown world of rock ‘n’ roll, like China, where rock bands can never get to easily.

“If we haven’t got our children, we haven’t got anything,” said Anderson, who has recently finished recording an album with the reunited Yes for Arista Records.

Others scheduled to appear at Sunday’s benefit, which begins at noon, will be guitarist Robbie Krieger of The Doors, singer Bill Champlin of Chicago, drummer Richie Hayward of Little Feat, singer Booker T., keyboardist Carl Graves of Oingo Boingo, singer-actress Katey Sagal, local blues rockers B.B. Chung King & the Screaming Budda Heads and a variety of other pop, rock, country, blues and jazz artists.

“It looks like it’s going to be a real cross-section of music, which is good,” said Graves, who will perform at 9 p.m. with Tuduri’s band, the Shades.

Organizers are hoping to raise at least $10,000, and as much as $16,000, through tickets and proceeds from the auction, said Donna Parker of the U.S. Committee for UNICEF, which helps raise funds for the United Nations program. More than a dozen local businesses have donated merchandise, including musical equipment, for door prizes and the auction. Other companies and individuals are donating labor and stage equipment for the show. The Palomino has donated the venue, although UNICEF cannot accept money raised through cigarette or liquor sales.

“Eddie’s heart is definitely in the right place,” Parker said. “He’s doing this for the children and he’s working around the clock.”

UNICEF was established by the United Nations after the end of World War II to aid children and their families in postwar China and Europe. Since then, Parker said, that mandate has expanded to address needs throughout the developing world, providing food, sanitation, water and basic health needs.

Funding for the U.N. program comes from a variety of countries, including the United States and Great Britain, and from individual fund-raising efforts.

Tuduri began organizing concerts for charity about nine years ago after seeing actress Sally Struthers in a commercial for the organization Save the Children. He began sponsoring a child through that group, and later organized a Save the Children benefit concert in Toronto, where he was then living.

“I did it out of guilt, really,” Tuduri said. “I guess a lot of people do that, but I looked further into the situation and was very touched by it.”

After returning to Los Angeles in 1985, where he now owns the Rimshot drumstick manufacturing company in Van Nuys, Tuduri began organizing shows for UNICEF. The shows have expanded ever since, and he is now planning a local jazz-themed UNICEF benefit for later this year. The jazz venue won’t be determined until Tuduri finalizes the lineup. He plans other shows this year in Texas, New York and Nashville. Country artists Waylon Jennings and Emmylou Harris have committed themselves to perform at the Nashville show, scheduled for June.

“I wanted to do something on a grass-roots level,” Tuduri said. “That was behind the whole idea, that we didn’t have to be a Bruce Springsteen to do it. Anybody in Muletown, Tex., can go down to the local pub with a few musicians, charge a couple of bucks at the door and raise a donation of $100. The reason we have stars here is because they live down the street. They are the local talent.”

Last year, Chicago’s Champlin and singer Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon were among 40 musicians who joined together to record the song “Let the Children Live Another Day” as a benefit for UNICEF. Still unreleased, the song nonetheless has become the theme of the series of benefits and is performed at every show.

“It’s important that all of us start getting involved, start taking care of some things,” said Scott Page, a saxophonist for Pink Floyd who will perform Sunday at The Palomino. “It’s a pretty sad affair out there these days and if we don’t start jumping on it we’re going to be in deep trouble.”

“Eddie has worked really hard,” said Shaun Murphy, singer for the Shades and a longtime participant in the benefits. “He’s built this thing up literally from dirt. It’s been great to see everything blossoming in the last couple of years. I hope it continues to grow.”

Musicians for the U.S. Committee for UNICEF perform a benefit show Sunday at The Palomino, 6907 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Doors open at noon. Tickets are $20 at the door, or through Ticketmaster. For information, call (818) 764-4010.