Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble ready to fly Motor City music flag around the world
Don Was, for all his eclectic musical adventures and creative achievements, says he's spent decades chasing a very particular sound in his head. He thinks he's finally nailed it.
With his new Pan-Detroit Ensemble, comprising nine hometown musicians, the Oak Park-raised bassist and producer says he has at last coalesced that sonic vision: jazzy and loose, honest and raw, soulful and grooving but never too polished.
Boiled down, it embodies what Was calls the sound of Detroit.
The group made its live debut Tuesday in Minneapolis, kicking off an 11-date spring run that will include a Friday evening homecoming performance at Orchestra Hall.
Indeed, it was a 2022 call from jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, a Blue Note artist who curates jazz programming for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, that kick-started the project. Blanchard was already eyeing Orchestra Hall’s 2024 schedule, and invited Was to perform.
“I said: ‘Sure, sounds like fun. But I didn’t have a band together or anything,’” Was recounts. “I didn’t really know what to do.”
By last fall, Was knew he needed to kick into action.
“I went through a whole thing in my head about what to do. I reminded myself of some of the oldest lessons I've learned as a record producer, the main one being: The thing that sets you apart from everyone else — that's your superpower,” he says. “That goes for everybody on earth.”
And for Was, that distinguishing quality was rooted in the place where it had all started.
“I thought: Let’s just go back to Detroit,” he says. “Let’s get a bunch of like-minded individuals in the room, play like we’re from Detroit and not try to be anything else.”
He first turned to a pair of loyal alums from his merrymaking dance-funk-rock outfit Was (Not Was), saxophonist Dave McMurray and keyboardist Luis Resto, the latter best known in recent years for his studio and songwriting work with Eminem.
The Pan-Detroit Ensemble is rounded out by trombonist Vincent Chandler, trumpeter John Douglas, drummer Jeff Canaday, percussionist Mahindi Massi, guitarist Wayne Gerard and vocalist Steffani Christi’an. All have worked with Was in various configurations through the years.
“I knew they could groove without being smooth,” he says. “Which is a big thing. I knew the primary reason they're there is that they all listen to what the other musicians are doing. They’re generous guys, not showing off. They’re nine people who get along well, and that’s a rare thing.”
Was is a decorated record producer (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt) who somehow manages to pull off one of the most impressively busy schedules in show business: serving as president of Blue Note Records, overseeing film scores, leading all-star concerts for the Grammys and other special events, touring regularly with Bob Weir, hosting a weekly Friday show with WDET-FM’s Ann Delisi, arranging his annual Detroit revue at Concert of Colors.
It's a life steeped in music 24/7, and at 71, Was seems as engaged as ever. Hearing him talk up the new Pan-Detroit project, you’d think he was a rising artist set to make his first splash on the scene.
“You're lucky if this can happen to you two or three times in a lifetime, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” he says. “The Stones are a good example of that. The Duke Ellington big band with Johnny Hodges and Billy Strayhorn — there was like a sound to that. And they started writing songs to that sound. This band’s got that. ... It happens to be the sound of Detroit.”
When Was and company gathered for an inaugural round of rehearsals in November at Royal Oak’s Rust Belt Studios, “it clicked in immediately.”
“It just came together and formed a thing. And when that happens, you’ve got to recognize it and hang onto it,” says Was. “We will travel around the world being the proponents of Detroit music.”
On Friday at Orchestra Hall, concertgoers can expect to hear a “wild mix” of songs from across the musical map, says Was. It will likely include Was (Not Was) deep cuts, pieces from his film work, a Yusef Lateef number and more.
Though he has been based in Los Angeles for several decades now, Was still returns to Detroit regularly. He and the new group were back at Rust Belt last week for a final round of pre-tour rehearsals, and with autumn dates already lining up — including a spot at the Monterey Jazz Festival — they’re ready to hit the globe as Motor City music ambassadors.
“There isn't an interview I've done so far where I haven't brought up Detroit and the evolution through John Lee Hooker, Donald Byrd and Elvin Jones, the MC5 and Mitch Ryder,” says Was. “It’s a big part of what we do. We talk about it everywhere. I mean, I put it right there in the name!”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble
8 p.m. Fri.
Orchestra Hall
3711 Woodward, Detroit
$19 and up at dso.org or the box office
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Don Was and Pan-Detroit Ensemble ready to fly Motor City music flag
