Jazz Ensembles

Drake University's Jazz Program is vibrant and active with various ensembles including Drake Jazz I, Drake Jazz II, Drake Vocal Jazz Singers, and several other combos. They perform multiple concerts on and off-campus every year. Additionally, the Department of Music has jazz faculty that are professional musicians for every jazz instrument.

Drake Jazz I

Drake Jazz I tours regionally every year, and it has won the collegiate division at the UW-Eau Claire Jazz Festival all eight times the the ensemble has attended. In 2018, Drake Jazz I traveled to China and performed for the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy. The ensemble also traveled to South America for another international tour in 2022. Other countries they have performed in are England, Holland, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

Drake Jazz II

Drake Jazz II is dedicated to the performance of the historically significant repertoire of the past, while also exposing students to recent compositions and arrangements. The ensemble presents three on-campus performances every year, as well as several off-campus performances. These are designed to assist students with their continued development of their jazz musicianship and ensemble skills.

Drake Vocal Jazz Singers

Drake Vocal Jazz Singers is the premier vocal jazz ensemble within the Department of Music at Drake University. Under the direction of Dr. Ann Cravero, Drake Vocal Jazz Singers is an auditioned group that consists of approximately sixteen vocalists stemming from a wide variety of academic majors, including music, across campus. The ensemble explores a diverse range of vocal jazz literature that fosters vocal, harmonic, rhythmic, and theoretical development, as well as cultural and historical awareness.

Turner Jazz Center

The Patty & Fred Turner Jazz Center is home to Drake Jazz I, Drake Jazz II, and Drake Vocal Jazz Singers. It was acoustically designed specifically for jazz performances. All jazz classes and ensemble rehearsals take place in this space. It is also a state-of-the-art recording facility, rivaling professional studios. Drake Jazz I utilizes these recording capabilities throughout the school year, and each semester, the ensemble produces an album's worth of studio quality recordings with videos, which are posted on YouTube.

The studio possesses a 32 channel D-Command console driving ProTools recording software. Students can learn about recording engineering and gain hands-on experience with this equipment through our Jazz Recording Techniques (MUS 144). Other recording classes deal with integration of recorded audio and video for social media distribution.

The recording process for Drake Jazz I mirrors what would happen in a professional studio in New York City or Los Angeles. Everyone is individually hooked to a microphone, and through playback, mistakes can be identified and corrected, which creates the highest level studio recording.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Drake Jazz I switched to recording by section with social distancing and produced seven complete videos in the fall 2020 semester alone. To enjoy these videos, please click here.