On November 20, Verve will release the first live album from Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. Live Dispatch Vol. 1: Blues For Allah ’26 will revisit the group’s performances during its tour that celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah.
In speaking about the Grateful Dead repertoire and his relationship with Bob Weir in Wolf. Bros, Was recently told Relix, “I can tell you from my own experience, these songs have something special going on in them. Over the years of playing with Bobby, I felt that the songs had become like friends. If we didn’t play them for a while, I’d start to miss the songs. You don’t always feel that, but I think there’s something special in the writing, and not just Jerry and Hunter, but also the songs that Bobby wrote with Barlow and other people.”
The Pan-Detroit Ensemble draws together a number of renowned musicians from Don’s hometown, including Dave McMurray (saxophone), Jeff Canady (drums), Vincent Chandler (trombone), Steffanie Christi’an (vocals), John Douglas (trumpet), Wayne Gerard (guitar), Mahindi Masai (percussion), and Phil Whitfield (keys).
The project began as a one-off when Terence Blanchard invited Was to assemble a group for a show as part a Jazz Series in conjunction with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Was later recalled, “We had a rehearsal about six months before the Detroit show and it just clicked. When it clicks, you can’t ignore that. When it feels like you’ve been playing together for decades and you’ve been playing together for 10 minutes, you don’t let that slip away. You only have one, maybe two opportunities if you live long enough and have a long enough musical career and develop those kinds of relationships to have that kind of familiarity and comfort and common language—so that the conversation becomes relaxed and jocular. We had that from the get-go, so I knew we shouldn’t stop with the one gig.”
As for the connection to the city, he added, “I think there’s absolutely something uniquely Detroit about what we are doing and what everybody who comes from Detroit does. I think it got its roots in the uniqueness of a one industry town. After World War II, people came from all over the world to work in these factories, and everything in that city depended upon the success of the auto business. If sales were down, people got laid off and they’d move away with their families. There’s something about everyone being in the same boat that creates a kind of root honesty to the place. There’s no point in putting on any airs. It’s a very honest population, and the music that’s come from there reflects that.”
Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble’s version of “The Music Never Stopped” is now streaming. The album is available for pre-order. The band's upcoming dates appear below the visualizer for "The Music Never Stopped."
Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble Tour Dates:
Oct 9 - Kent, OH - The Kent Stage
Oct 10 - Nelsonville, OH - Stuart's Opera House
Oct 11 - Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall
Oct 13 - Homer, NY - Center for the Arts of Homer
Oct 14 - New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
Oct 15 - Fairfield, CT - The Warehouse at FTC
Oct 16 - Boston, MA - The Sinclair
Oct 17 - Groton, MA - Groton Hill Music Center
Oct 18 - Bar Harbor, ME - Criterion Theatre
