2016 Series - Walnut Creek Jazz Experience
Open Tuesday – Sunday
Closed Monday*
Open for Calls
Tuesday – Sunday: Noon – 6:00pm
Friday – Saturday: Noon – 7:30pm
(925) 943-7469
Open for Walk Up
Tuesday – Thursday: 11:00am – 6:00pm
Friday – Saturday: Noon – 7:30pm
Sunday: Noon – 6:00pm
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
*In addition to the hours noted, the Ticket Office is also open one hour prior and thirty minutes after curtain for ticketed performances, including performances on Mondays.
The Diablo Regional Arts Association is committed to elevating the quality and professionalism of performing arts in Contra Costa County. Our support of drama, classical music, dance, and musical theater at the Lesher Center has enriched the community and helped to establish the Lesher Center as the cultural hub of the East Bay. But missing from the area’s performing arts scene is jazz as performed by instrumentalists and vocalists of the top rank. Now, in our fifth year as a presenter, DRAA is once again offering a concert series featuring internationally acclaimed jazz artists.
Geri Allen Quartet
July 30, 2016
Celebrated pianist Geri Allen is a Guggenheim Fellow and NAACP Award recipient. A respected composer and educator, Ms. Allen’s many honors also include the 2014 Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Jazz Legacy Award and has released 20 albums as a leader. Her group will feature alto sax legend and Grammy nominee John Handy. Ms. Allen has collaborated with a pantheon of living masters including Ornette Coleman, Charles Lloyd, Betty Carter, Charlie Haden, Esperanza Spalding and more.
Warren Vaché Quintet
August 6, 2016
A trumpet/cornet player with a distinctively warm and sophisticated sound, Mr. Vaché has played all the major halls and festivals of Europe, Asia and the U.S. with such artists as Rosemary Clooney, Benny Goodman, Hank Jones, Gerry Mulligan, Bobby Short, and Benny Carter. For us he will lead the all-star group featured on his celebrated “Remembers Benny Carter” CD: Houston Person (tenor sax), Nicki Parrott (bass/vocals), Tardo Hammer (piano) and Leroy Williams (drums).
Arturo Sandoval
August 20, 2016
This legendary Cuban trumpet player has won four Grammys, six Billboard Awards and an Emmy (for the score of an HBO movie based on his own life). He has played at the Academy Awards with Celine Dion, the Grammy Awards with Justin Timberlake and the Super Bowl with Tony Bennett and Patti LaBelle. His incandescent solos can be heard on recordings by Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Johnny Mathis, Paul Anka and Rod Stewart among many others.
Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing
August 27, 2016
With more than two million CDs sold, Grammy Award-winning violinist Mark O'Connor collaborates with artists ranging from Bela Fleck to Itzhak Perlman, from Wynton Marsalis to Yo-Yo Ma. "One of the most talented and imaginative artists working in music-- any music--today" (LA Times), O’Connor is deeply influenced by his friend and mentor Stéphane Grappelli. His quintet (two violins, guitar, bass and vocalist) will whip up an exhilarating brew of pure, tasty acoustic jazz.