Detroiter Don Was has done everything there is to do in music. He’s a musician, a producer and record company president.
Now, he has a new band, and they’re coming to Lansing.
As a bassist, Was helped form the 1980s band Was (Not Was). He’s won Grammy Awards as a producer for acts like the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Brian Wilson, Willie Nelson and the B-52s.
For more than a decade, he’s been president of the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records, and he continues to play with artists like Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead.
Was says the idea of forming his own band again sprang partly from the deaths of Detroit contemporaries like Wayne Kramer of the MC5.
We sound like Detroit is all I can tell you.
He wanted the new Pan Detroit Ensemble to reflect the Motor City.
“We sound like Detroit is all I can tell you,” Was explained. "It was kind of by design to get people who all naturally sounded like that, and it does sound different. Not only does it sound different, but I think it resonates globally.”
Don Was is joined by Dave McMurray, a saxophonist with an Oscar for his work with Eminem, Luis Resto on keyboards, the horn section of Vincent Chandler and John Douglas, drummer Jeff Canaday, percussionist Mahindi Masai and guitarist Wayne Gerard.
Was says the band’s set lists will likely include a few Was (Not Was) gems, maybe even its biggest hit, Walk the Dinosaur. Replacing late singer Sweet Pea Atkinson was not a simple task.
“We dipped our feet in the water, and Steffanie Christi’an, who’s singing with the band, she’s a fantastic singer,” Was said. “She has her own approach to it. I miss Sweet Pea like crazy, but I would like to play some of those songs, so we’re adding a couple to the set. The number one rule is whatever you did last night, don’t do that tonight.”
You might think that with his celebrity in the music industry, Don Was might want to hog the spotlight with his new band, but you’d be wrong.
“You know, man, nobody wants to hear a bass solo,” he laughed. “I don’t even want to hear it. I’m happy to sit in the groove. That’s where I live. I do a vocal. We used to have a couple of pieces in the Was (Not Was) repertoire, so we’ll pull those out.”
At this point, the Pan Detroit Ensemble doesn’t have a recording contract, not even with the company Don Was leads as president. He does expect to release music at some point, just not on Blue Note.
“I have to pass on brilliant musicians every single day. It’s absolutely the worst part of the gig, either passing on musicians I have tremendous respect for or dropping musicians that I love and signed and believe in. So, it would really be obnoxious for me to put my own record out.”
I’m 72. If I retired and said now I’ve got time to do the things I love, it would be exactly what I’m doing.
Was may be one of the busiest people in the music business, touring with this band and with other artists, producing records, hosting radio shows on SiriusXM and on Detroit’s public radio station WDET, and even serving as the voice of Neville the Dog, a character on the children’s TV show Pete the Cat.
At his age, why is he still working? Like many artists, Don Was says he just loves his work.
“I’m 72. If I retired and said now I’ve got time to do the things I love, it would be exactly what I’m doing.”
Don Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble will be at Lansing’s Grewal Hall Sunday evening at 7.
Before that concert, the group will also do four shows Friday and Saturday at the Blue Llama in Ann Arbor.
