Don Was & the Pan-Detroit Ensemble

Superstar producer, composer, podcaster, musician, and Blue Note Records president Don Was brings the distinctive musical flavor of his Motor City hometown to these dates. His Pan-Detroit Ensemble is made up of many of the city’s great jazz musicians including saxophonist Dave McMurray, keyboardist Luis Resto, and vocalist Steffanie Christi’an, with a sound marked by a funky, urban rawness and bone-deep grooves.

Taking inspiration from a wide range of Detroit jazz, blues, funk, and rock legends including John Lee Hooker, Donald Byrd, Joe Henderson, George Clinton, Mitch Ryder, and The Stooges, Was’s Pan-Detroit Ensemble contains multitudes.

Their repertoire spans a mix of new originals and resonant interpretations of songs written by exploratory Detroiters Yusef Lateef, Olu Dara, and Henry Threadgill, as well as material from Was’s personal projects Orquestra Was and Was (Not Was).

In Was’s own words, “There’s a unique sound and feel to Detroit that permeates the music in a way that resonates all over the globe. There is a rawness, a lack of pretension and an unmistakable, underlying groove that reflects the people and culture of the city.” Join us for these two nights with an American original.