Don Was & The Pan Detroit Ensemble
Show Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Show Time: 7:30 PM
Doors Open: 6:00 PM
Ticket Price: $35-$50 plus applicable fees.
Show Type: Jazz
Restrictions: All Ages
You could fill both a record store and a hat store with the albums Don Was has touched and the lids he’s donned on the way to six Grammys, an Emmy, a BAFTA, and the respect of musicians and fans of all ages worldwide. In nearly 50 years in the music business the Was (Not Was) bandleader has collaborated with an astonishing list of top-flight artists in pursuit of making a truthful, transcendent, healing and joyful noise. As a producer, songwriter, recording artist, music supervisor, documentarian, musical director, radio host, multi-instrumentalist, and President of Blue Note Records, Was has been enthusiastically and fearlessly genre fluid, moving freely across rock, pop, jazz, country, reggae, R&B, and world music.
Those sessions and shows have taken him all over the globe to work with everyone from Gregg Allman to John Mayer to Zucchero and every letter in between, bringing out the best in Hall of Fame names like the Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, and scores more.
But in all that time, there was one thing Don Was had not done: Released an album under his own name.
That’s about to change with Groove in the Face of Adversity, the record that brings the world traveler back home to where it all started, the Motor City.