Concert Review: Don Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble
Don Was & the Pan-Detroit Ensemble January 29, 2026, Newman Center, Denver
What to make of Don Was? He was co-leader of the band Was (Not Was), a band known for Zappa-esque irreverent, off-beat humor that drew musical inspiration from rock, funk, soul, R&B, dance music, jazz, pop, world music, country, fusion, reggae and more. How does someone like that end up as president of Blue Note Records, one of the most storied record labels in the history of jazz? Jazz is on that long list of musical influences. And Was has a great collection of cool hats. Maybe it was because Was produced albums by the B-52s, the Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and others. But it was probably the hats. By the way, he’s won six Grammys. That probably helps.
His current project is leading his band called Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. The group is touring in support of its album Groove in the Face of Adversity (Mack Avenue, 2025). Thursday night, Was brought his band to the Newman Center to play the new album, some Was (not Was) tunes and the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah (Warner Brothers, 1975) in its entirety.
Was was an amiable emcee, especially at the beginning of the show. He began by eulogizing the recently departed Bob Weir, one of the last surviving members of the Grateful Dead, who had passed away only 11 days before the show. Was and Weir were friends. Was played bass with Weir, including on Grateful Dead tunes. In a salute to his fallen friend, Was read a eulogy that Ram Dass had written for Jerry Garcia shortly after he passed away in 1995, explaining that everything in that tribute applied equally to his friend Bobby. He also told a story of how Weir had learned of Garcia’s death shortly before he and his band Ratdog were scheduled to play a concert. Weir decided the show should go on and that playing music was the best way to deal with the grief. Was thought of that story when he learned of Weir’s death 30 minutes before he was scheduled to play the first show of the current tour. And so that, and subsequent shows, have gone on. Was then previewed the show by saying that they would play tunes from the band’s new album as well as the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah from top to bottom, in part because it was released just over 50 years ago on September 1, 1975.
Thursday night, Was brought a nine-piece band (including himself) to the Newman Center. After the introduction, the band launched into a Was (not Was) cover, “Hello Operator.” That one put the band’s singer, Steffanie Christi’an, right out front. She belted it out with a sassy attitude and an oversized helping of charisma.
The band got down to the business of playing the new album with the next tune, “You Asked, I Came,” and then threw in another Was (not Was) tune, “Elvis’ Rolls Royce.” This one came with a story by Was about how his brother in music, David Was, came across an auction of Elvis Presley’s Rolls Royce while walking around London. He was tempted to try to steal it and drive it back to Graceland, where it belonged, but wisely decided to write a song about it instead. On the original version, Leonard Cohen read the lyrics, but since Cohen was unavailable Thursday night, Was took his turn at the recitation. And the song is, indeed, about stealing the car, driving it across the Atlantic to New York City and then on to Memphis. The final song before the Dead-fest was also from the Groove album, “I Ain’t Got Nothing But Time,” a Hank Williams song that completely departed from the twangy original. There’s that eclectic influence again.
The band members were recruited by Was from the Detroit area. Among the more prominent was sax and flute man Dave McMurray. He has several albums under his own name, not coincidentally on the Blue Note label. Along with the other members of the band, he was given several solo spots and took full advantage of them to lay down some urgent, jazz-inflected solos.
When the time for Blues for Allah came around, Was explained that they didn’t want to do karaoke versions of the Dead tunes. Instead, they would “Detroit-ize” them. That translated into a healthy injection of soul, starting with Christi’an on the vocals. The horns added more color and variation to the original arrangements. A good example of that was on “King Solomon’s Marbles” where they engrafted the recurring instrumental lick from Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues.” Keyboardist, Luis Resto, pulled out his violin for some of these covers, with a look vaguely resembling the original album cover.
The tune on Blues for Allah that needs the most help in any reworking of that album is the title track. It runs nearly 14 minutes. It starts with a slow, mournful introduction and from there…pretty much just fizzles out. The Pan-Detroit Ensemble made the most of the source material, however, and was able to improve on it. Most significantly, Vincent Chandler jazzed it up considerably with an extended trombone solo.
After finishing Blues for Allah, the band wasn’t quite ready to release the Dead vibe and so headed into “Loser,” a song on Jerry Garcia’s first solo album, Garcia (Warner Brothers, 1972).
The band got back in the Groove with the reggae-inflected “Midnight Marauders,” followed by some drums and percussion and then the party-funk of “Insane,” also from Groove. But, wait! There was time for more Dead, as the band jumped into “Shakedown Street.” That one featured the horns playing the part of the backing vocals from the original. The show concluded with Curtis Mayfield’s “This is My Country,” a song with a poignant angle, given current events.
As suits Was’ proclivities, the band was capable of many different variations and moods of the groove. Danceability was almost the default position for the group. Several times, the comfy seats of the Newman Center started to feel like liabilities because of the need to get up and move. The hoity-toity surroundings of the elegant hall may have been an inhibition as well, but that didn’t stop everyone. Starting with “Franklin’s Tower,” the need to get up outa that chair and move proved irresistible to scattered audience members. More than anything, however, the high-level musicianship and remarkable creativity shone through the entire evening. And Don’s hat was excellent.
Set List
Hello Operator (Was (not Was) cover)
You Asked, I Came
Elvis’s Rolls Royce (Was (not Was) cover)
I Ain’t Got Nothing But Time (Hank Williams cover)
Blues for Allah
Help on the Way/Slipknot
Franklin’s Tower
King Solomon’s Marbles
The Music Never Stopped
Crazy Fingers
Sage and Spirit
Blues for Allah
Loser (Jerry Garcia cover)
Midnight Marauders
Drums
Insane
Shakedown Street (Grateful Dead cover)
This Is My Country. (Curtis Mayfield cover)
The Band
Don Was, bass, vocals, emcee
Jeff Canady, drums
Vincent Chandler, trombone
Steffanie Christi’an, vocals
John Douglas, trumpet
Wayne Gerard, guitar
Dave McMurray, saxophone
Luis Resto, keyboards, violin
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