Don Was and The Pan-Detroit Ensemble came together in May 2024 after Terence Blanchard invited Was to participate in a jazz series that Blachard was curating for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. As Was recalls, “I decided to find people who grew up listening to the same radio stations that I did and be as extreme Detroit as I could be. I realized that just about no one else is doing that, certainly not at my age of 73. Mitch Ryder is still out there playing. Iggy’s out there playing, but there aren’t a whole lot of folks from that era. So I put together a band of people who I knew, some of whom I’ve been playing with for 45 years. We already had a common language.”

The jazz-infused soul collective then recorded a studio album, Groove in the Face of Adversity and took to the road. In addition to the material on the record, the band also began interpreting the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah to celebrate the album’s 50th anniversary, via a suggestion from the Golden Road Festival.

Don Was and The Pan-Detroit Ensemble will continue to explore this repertoire on a fall tour that will kick off in Austin on September 29 and extend through October 18 in Bar Harbor, ME. These shows follow-up an existing series of gigs that will begin on August 3.

When asked to describe the Motor City component of the band’s sound, Was told Relix, “I cite John Lee Hooker as the greatest example of Detroit music. It’s so raw. You don’t know if a song’s going to fall apart in the next minute, but it never does. He also swings like crazy and he’s super soulful, but it’s utterly without polish or pretension. That follows every different alleyway of Detroit music, whether it’s Mitch Ryder, MC5, Stooges, White Stripes, J Dilla, Donald Byrd, Joe Henderson or Elvin Jones. It’s not a big, slick sound and there’s a repetitive, undulating groove underneath. The Stooges were like a rock-and-roll version of James Brown’s band. That’s the tradition, and I think we embody it.”

Was also recently spoke to Relix about Bob Weir for our special commemorative publication.

Don Was and The Pan-Detroit Ensemble Tour Dates

Aug. 3, 2026 Phoenix, AZ Musical Instrument Museum
Aug. 5, 2026 Tucson, AZ La Rosa
Aug. 6, 2026 Santa Fe, NM The Bridge At Santa Fe Brewing Company
Aug. 7, 2026 Telluride, CO Telluride Jazz Festival 2026
Aug. 8, 2026 Fort Collins, CO The Gardens on Spring Creek
Aug. 9, 2026 Boulder, CO Boulder Theater
Aug. 10, 2026 Beaver Creek, CO Vilar Performing Arts Center
Aug. 18, 2026 Maryland Heights, MO Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
Aug. 19, 2026 Shakopee, MN Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Aug. 21, 2026 East Troy, WI Alpine Valley Music Theatre
Aug. 22, 2026 Clarkston, MI Pine Knob Music Theatre
Aug. 23, 2026 Noblesville, IN Ruoff Music Center
Aug. 25, 2026 Chicago, IL Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Aug. 26, 2026 Cincinnati, OH The Ludlow Garage
Aug. 28, 2026 Wantagh, NY Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
Aug. 29, 2026 Bethel, NY Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
Aug. 30, 2026 Saratoga Springs, NY Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Sep. 29, 2026 Austin, TX Antone’s
Sep. 30, 2026 Austin, TX Antone’s
Oct. 1, 2026 Houston, TX The Heights Theater
Oct. 2, 2026 Dallas, TX The Kessler Theater
Oct. 3, 2026 Kansas City, MO Knuckleheads
Oct. 4, 2026 Minneapolis, MN Dakota
Oct. 6, 2026 Traverse City, MI The Alluvion
Oct. 7, 2026 Lansing, MI Grewal Hall at 224
Oct. 9, 2026 Kent, OH The Kent Stage
Oct. 10, 2026 Nelsonville, OH Stuart’s Opera House
Oct. 11, 2026 Buffalo, NY Babeville
Oct. 13, 2026 Homer, NY Center for the Arts of Homer
Oct. 14, 2026 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge
Oct. 15, 2026 Fairfield, CT The Warehouse at FTC
Oct. 16, 2026 Cambridge, MA The Sinclair
Oct. 17, 2026 Groton, MA Groton Hill Music Center
Oct. 18, 2026 Bar Harbor, ME 1932 Criterion Theatre