About an hour into the Pan-Detroit Ensemble’s second show Tuesday night, Don Was grabbed the microphone and said, “We’re gonna play a little long. I hope that’s alright!” On the first night of the tour, perhaps they wanted to test out more material, or maybe they were just feeling good. Regardless of the reason, this epic nine-piece ensemble played another hour of wide-ranging, dynamic jazz-rock-funk music.
Detroit, like Minneapolis, has produced an inordinate amount of incredible music relative to its size. Jazz artists Jean Goldkette, Milt Jackson, Tommy Flanagan, and James and Regina Carter have all called Detroit home. The incredible Motown years gave us Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and many others. We’ve seen rock and pop figures like the MC5, The Stooges, Madonna, Bob Seger, and Jack White. Detroit’s techno and hip-hop scene has given us artists like J Dilla and Eminem. This just scratches the surface.
Don Was grew up in the middle of all this music, and it shows. His band, Was (Not Was), impossibly mashed all these sounds into somewhat coherent songs. Detroit’s Metro News called the band “a sausage factory of funk, rock, jazz and electronic dance music,” which feels like an incomplete description of their sound. As a performer, Don has aspired to represent all of Detroit’s music in his playing. So the name of this new band, the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, makes sense.
“Pan-Detroit” refers not only to the breadth of musical styles covered but also to the players of the music. Was, predictably, collected some of the finest musicians working today to represent his, and their, city. Saxophonist Dave McMurray is an acclaimed Blue Note artist who was also part of every iteration of Was (Not Was). Keyboardist Luis Resta’s “day job” is as Eminem’s primary collaborator and Musical Director. The rest of the band have similar credentials: trombonist Vincent Chandler, trumpeter John Douglas, drummer Jeff Canaday, percussionist Mahindi, guitarist Wayne Gerard and vocalist Steffanie Christi’ann.
A band this large, on its first-ever show, takes a little bit to get going. They warmed up on a Yusuf Lateef number that recalled the dirty funk of 1970’s Miles Davis. Don’s calling card for years was as an energetic, propulsive funky bassist, and that’s exactly what we got from this ace rhythm section. Don took a vocal lead on his old band’s surreal “I Feel Better than James Brown”, blending beat poetry with slinky funk. Steffanie Christi’ann commanded the front stage, evoking Detroit native Bettye LaVette as the band turned the Hank Williams classic “I Ain’t Got Nothing But Time” into a sultry soul tune.
The percussion section was featured in a rhythmic exploration they called “Indigenous Detroit.” Both Canaday and Mahindi have prodigious skills yet are careful to only use them in service of the songs they play. The band reassembled for a rollicking read of the Was (Not Was) classic “Wheel Me Out” (first album, side one, track one!) before finishing with the Grateful Dead tunes “Shakedown Street” and “Loser”, a nod to Was’s current work with Bob Weir.
Every member of the band was featured multiple times, save for one: Don Was didn’t take a single solo. The man in the hat, center stage, is the rock that all this music swirls around; he guides, directs and changes direction, but never takes the spotlight for himself. This shouldn’t be a surprise: he’s spent nearly fifty years in music doing just that. As a producer, he doesn’t control recording sessions so much as he makes a space for artists to be creative. As an executive, he allows Blue Note artists to be themselves instead of imposing artificial structures on them. So it’s natural for him to create a space for his bandmates to shine while he simply holds down the groove.
I’ve been in the Dakota a few times when someone so cool walks in, they change the whole feel of the space: they become the coolest person in the room. Dr. John had that effect. Bettye LaVette. Herb Alpert. Booker T. Jones. I felt it again when Don came in for sound check in the afternoon, and again after the show. This man’s contact list encompasses the whole of recorded music for at least a half-century, and here he is, charming, down to earth, chatting with everyone who wants to get something signed or just say hi. Again, given the music he has created, this isn’t a surprise: it’s just a refreshing reminder that sometimes, people are as cool as they seem.
WRITTEN BY: DAN EIKMEIER MARKETING | MAY 22, 2024
