"Donovan's Garage" Jazz Closes Season Three with Fan Favorite "Afro-Latino Quintet"

Evanston: Donovan Mixon, whose popular “Donovan’s Garage” jazz events have brought more than 80 of Chicago’s finest jazz musicians to Evanston, has announced plans for a special show to wrap up the third season of jazz events at the AKAR Auditorium.

“A big part of the “Donovan’s Garage” experience is the enthusiasm of the fans,” says Mixon, an Evanstonian who is himself a prominent jazz guitarist in the Chicago jazz scene. “So I engaged them in deciding which of the shows we’ve brought to the AKAR stage was their favorite.” Their choice was a quintet Mixon dubbed the “DMix Afro-Latino Quintet.” So that is the group that will headline the “Donovan’s Garage” show on Tuesday, June 23.”

Members of the quintet are:
Joshua Ramos on bass, Rocky Yera on tenor sax, Darwin Noguerra on piano, Juan Pastor on drums and percussion, and Donovan Mixon on guitar.

Then will come a highly unusual second set. Donovan is extending an invitation to the event to each of the 80 jazz artists who have performed in the “Garage” shows over the past three seasons to participate in a jam session.

“No matter how many are able to join the fun, we will fit them all on the stage” says Mixon. “Expect surprise combinations, unexpected musical conversations and the joyful unpredictability that defines the “Garage” experience."

Read about each of the players in the Afro-Latino Quintet” and see the entire list of the jazz musicians who have performed in Evanston at donovanmixon.com.

The show begins at 7pm on Tuesday, June 23 at the AKAR Auditorium, 2715 Hurd Avenue in Evanston (Across the street from Willard School).

Here is the “Donovan’s Garage” backstory: Mixon’s work to bring Chicago Jazz to Evanston for the free “Donovan’s Garage” events earned him the Mayor’s Award for the Arts last year. The project emerged from the Covid years when Mixon invited his Chicago jazz friends to jam sessions in the garage behind his Evanston home. The Evanston RoundTable ran a story about the sessions. The next week about 200 (socially-distanced) people showed up in the alley to listen in, and the idea for the “Donovan’s Garage” shows was born. Evanstonian Steve Rogers, who owns the AKAR Auditorium, offered use of the space, which has been home to the shows for the past three years.)