Musician & Producer Don Was On Don Was & The Pan Detroit Ensemble

Don Was & The Pan Detroit Ensemble
Maggie LePique speaks with Don Was about his new musical group Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. Don & the Ensemble are embarking on a West Coast run of concert dates in September 2024. Made up of stellar jazz musicians from his Detroit hometown, The Pan-Detroit Ensemble will perform a mix of new originals, interpretations of songs written by artists like Yusef Lateef, Olu Dara, and Henry Threadgill, and of course updated cuts from albums that Don recorded with Orquestra Was and Was (Not Was). Don’s Detroit roots still run deep and, we explore those roots and highlight his most recent musical love letter to that great city, The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, and so much more.
More on Don Was:
Don Was is one of music’s most significant artists and executives, exceling in multiple roles and serving as one of the industry’s beacons for integrity and forward-thinking. During this period of disruption and rapid evolution in the worldwide music business, Was remains committed to music as an art form and its importance to contemporary culture. As the President of Blue Note Records since 2011, Was is both the company’s leader and an ambassador for its music, charged with bringing the label’s 21st Century jazz artists and its expanding pallet of contemporary musicians to larger audiences. Was is also caretaker for Blue Note’s singular and historic catalogue of music, and is burnishing the label’s 80-year legacy by overseeing ongoing and extensive reissue campaigns that serve audiences in both the analogue and digital realms.
One of Was’s most noteworthy musical associations of the past two decades is with The Rolling Stones, for whom he’s produced their last four studio albums and a host of other studio and live recordings. Beginning with Voodoo Lounge in 1994 and continuing through Bridges To Babylon in 1997, A Bigger Bang in 2005 and Blue And Lonesome in 2016, Was’s work with the Stones has resulted in Platinum and Gold certifications in dozens of countries. He also oversees the band’s historic reissues, including Exile on Main Street in 2010, Some Girls in 2011 and Sticky Fingers in 2015, searching the band’s vaults and master tapes for lost jewels and bringing the projects to completion. He produced the band’s 2020 surprise single, “Living In A Ghost Town,” which was released amidst the global pandemic in April of that year.

Source: https://donwas.com/
Source: https://www.bluenote.com/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.