After a generous 1.5 million dollar donation from Fred Turner, former CEO of McDonalds, the Drake University Jazz Program has a new home: The Patty and Fred Turner Jazz Center. Since then, it has been the venue for such acts as Drake Faculty Quintet, Drake Jazz Combo Nights, Turner Center Jazz Orchestra, Ogni Suono Sax Duet, and the Rob Scheps/Greg Gisbert Quintet. In cooperation with Civic Music
Association (http://www.civicmusic.org/), the Turner Center has also hosted workshops by world class artists like Chris Potter and Wycliffe Gordon. Along with the brilliant performance space Patty’s Place, which is named after Fred Turner’s late wife, the jazz center also features a 40-channel recording studio (Drake Jazz I was able to utilize this new system in January to record their 2011 CD), a coffee/refreshments bar, and an isolation room for small group rehearsals. The Patty and Fred Turner Center is located on the North end of the Harmon Fine Arts building on Drake Campus, corner of 25th street and Carpenter Avenue.
