If you were to ask a random group of music fans the question “Who is Don Was?” you’d get as many different answers as respondents. You’d undoubtedly hear answers including five-time GRAMMY-winning producer, musician, songwriter, film composer, music director, filmmaker, radio host, and president of the legendary Blue Note Records. And that lengthy list doesn’t fully cover the depth and breadth of his creative endeavors.
Born in Detroit in 1952, Donald Fagenson grew up immersed in the city’s fabled soul, jazz, and blues scene that was exploding in the 1960s and 70s, and was deeply influenced by the jazz poetry and aesthetic of counterculture lodestone John Sinclair. He began his creative path on guitar and made his way through the cover band circuit before settling on the bass and working as a session musician while making connections throughout the Detroit area.
His enduring partnership with a childhood friend, the multi-instrumentalist and composer David Weiss, led to the formation of their satirical band Was (Not Was) in the late 1970s as the pseudonymous siblings Don and David Was. Their self-titled 1981 debut album was an explosive mix of rock, disco, and beat-style poetry featuring Detroit music luminaries Wayne Kramer of the proto-punk innovators MC5 and jazz trumpet great Marcus Belgrave, and they had its biggest hit in 1988 with “Walk the Dinosaur” from their breakout release What Up, Dog?. Aided by a video that was ubiquitous on MTV, the track hit #7 on the Billboard chart in April of 1989 and What Up, Dog? was named to Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Best Albums of the 1980s.
Simultaneously, Was found himself in increasing demand as a producer and made a worldwide splash for his production work on singer/songwriter Bonnie Raitt’s quintuple-platinum 1989 release Nick of Time – a triple GRAMMY-winner, including a nod for Album of the Year, that consistently ranks in the upper half of Rolling Stone’s list of Greatest Albums of All Time and entered the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry for its cultural significance.
He helmed 1989’s Cosmic Thing, the quadruple-platinum selling comeback hit by new wave icons the B-52s that included the #3 Billboard hit “Love Shack,” and by the early 1990s had truly become a producer to the stars, lending his finely attuned musical instincts to albums by Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Roy Orbison, Bob Seger, and David Crosby, among others. His rapidly expanding résumé led to a well-deserved 1994 GRAMMY for Producer of the Year in recognition of his work on albums by Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, and Randy Newman.
It was during 1994 that Was began his continuing partnership with the Rolling Stones, working on their eight most recent albums including 2023’s Hackney Diamonds and consulting on their reissue series that includes expanded versions of their classic albums Exile on Main Street and Some Girls.
Beyond his work as a producer, Was directed the award-winning 1995 documentary I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times dedicated to Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson and served as a music consultant on a sizable list of major Hollywood movies including Thelma and Louise, Honeymoon in Vegas, and Toy Story.
In 2012, Was returned to his jazz roots when he succeeded longtime Blue Note Records head Bruce Lundvall to become President and CEO of the legendary label, signing a number of both rising and veteran artists and overseeing their robust reissue program of classic vinyl in the Classic and deluxe Tone Poet series.
Through his career as a modern renaissance figure, Was remains a musician at heart, and the deep legacy of Detroit music is still a driving force in his creativity. He hosts the weekly Motor City Playlist show for WDET and currently leads the Pan Detroit Ensemble, who make a stop at SFJAZZ for two performances on 9/26 and 9/27.
Steeped in the distinctive musical flavor of Was’s Motor City hometown, the 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.”
Don Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble performs 9/26 and 9/27 as part of the SFJAZZ 2024-25 Season. Tickets and more information are available here. The 9/27 concert will be broadcast live as part of the Fridays Live series. Watch it here.