Don Was gives a new meaning to multitalented. His list of talents includes musician, multi-Grammy award-winning record producer, music director, film composer, documentary filmmaker, radio host and President of the celebrated jazz label Blue Note Records.
Was will be playing bass and leading his new band when he brings Don Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble to SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave., Evanston, for performances at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on May 22.
Was decided to put together this new band after getting an offer from a friend, Terence Blanchard, who curates a series at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra of Detroit-flavored jazz.
“Last October I gathered a group of musicians together,” Was said. “I knew all of them so it wasn’t that risky a proposition. Something crazy happened when we all got together. We all spoke the same language musically.”
It worked so well that Was thought it would be a shame to put it together for only one performance so they booked a tour from May 21 through June 2. In addition to Detroit and Evanston, it will take them to Minneapolis; Cincinnati; Cumberland, Maryland; Red Bank, New Jersey; New York City; Washington DC, and Ardmore, Pennsylvania. They are currently planning a second tour.
The band members are Dave McMurray (sax), Luis Resto (keyboards), Vincent Chandler (trombone), Wayne Gerard (guitar), John Douglas (trumpet), Jeff Canaday (drums), Mahindi Masai (percussion), and Steffanie Christi’an (vocals).
Saxophonist Dave McMurray is a Blue Note Records artist. He said that he met Was around 1982.
“We hit if off immediately,” McMurray said. “He’s always had a different point of view. Everything was opposite of what everybody else was doing.”
McMurray noted that he has played with Was on and off since they met. Once Was lured McMurray from Detroit to Los Angeles to play with the Rolling Stones.
Performing with Was is always an amazing experience, McMurray indicated, “He had kind of a vision. Every time it was like a traveling circus. It was cool to play because everybody got a chance to get their thing in—do what they do.”
The band performs the distinctly Detroit sound which Was described as “a certain raw, unpretentiousness to the music.”
McMurray described the Ensemble’s style as “unique. The song selection is very different—from rock to country.”
The SPACE concert will include a mix of original songs, familiar Was songs, movie scores, a couple of Grateful Dead songs and more.
As for the sound of The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, “It’s kind of jazzy but it’s got a funk groove running underneath it. It’s not smooth jazz,” Was explained. “It’s pretty raw. Our main goal is to make sure that the audience comes out of there feeling better than when they went in.”
Was’ career sounds like a juggling act but he explained that he learned a lesson about how to do that successfully when he interviewed Frank Sinatra in the 1960s.
“At that time, he was getting up at 5:30 in the morning to film a movie,” Was related. “He would leave the set late afternoon and go to the studio and record a song and then jump on a plane and go to appear with the Rat Pack.”
When Was asked Sinatra how he does all those things, the entertainer told him, “Wherever you are be there 100%.”
One of the surprising additions to Was’ schedule is serving as the voice of Neville the Dog for the hit Amazon Prime Video children’s show, “Pete the Cat.”
Was said he agreed to do that for the adventure.
“It’s a brand new experience,” he said. “The weird thing is that I just did it because it seemed like it would be a fun new thing to try. But that cartoon penetrated the culture more deeply than most of the records I worked on. The proof of it came when I was in Nashville and someone came up to me backstage and asked me to sign the ticket.”
Was started to write his name when the person interrupted him and said, “No, I want you to sign it as Neville the Dog,” he recalled.
It’s a role that Was definitely embraces, revealing he calls young children of friends as the voice of Neville the Dog.
He won’t be dogging it on May 22, though.
Tickets to Don Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble are $35-$80. Call 847-492-8860 or visit evanstonspace.com.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
