DON WAS

Born and raised in Detroit, Don Was is a six-time Grammy Award-winning bassist, record producer, and president of the legendary jazz label, Blue Note Records. As a co-founder of the group Was (Not Was), he has long sought to weave the city’s rich legacy of jazz, R&B and rock ’n roll into a new, exotic strain of music. His latest band, The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, is a further step in that quest.

Was has worked with a wide array of artists ranging from Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, John Mayer, and Willie Nelson to Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Robert Glasper. He won the Producer of the Year Grammy Award in 1995.