For five decades, Don Was worked from the other side of the glass. He produced albums for the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Bonnie Raitt, and steered Blue Note Records as its president. All the while, the music he grew up loving — Detroit jazz, blues, and funk — waited. The Pan-Detroit Ensemble is what happens when that waiting ends. On Sunday, October 11, the nine-piece soul-jazz collective brings Was’s homecoming project to Asbury Hall at Babeville in Buffalo.
About the Show
The ensemble came together following a May 2024 collaboration at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, curated by trumpeter Terence Blanchard. Was had spent decades earning multiple Grammy Awards, the presidency of Blue Note Records, and production credits spanning the Rolling Stones to Willie Nelson, but this project, he has said, is the sound he has carried in his head for 30 to 40 years. He states his mission the same way at the top of every set: “We’re the Pan-Detroit Ensemble and we are on a mission to promulgate the music of our hometown.”
The debut album, Groove in the Face of Adversity, arrived in October 2025 on Mack Avenue Records. Was drew the title from a childhood moment — hearing Joe Henderson’s “Mode for Joe” on the radio and receiving what he calls a nonverbal message: relax, go with the flow, find the groove even when the world pushes back. The album delivers that philosophy across six tracks of what Was describes as “steamy juke-joint blues to mercurial flights of jazz fantasy to loose-limbed funk.” He plays upright bass alongside saxophonist Dave McMurray, keyboardist Luis Resto (known for his work with Eminem), vocalist Steffanie Christi’an, whom Was has called “one of the best singers I have ever heard in my life,” and Detroit veterans on trombone, trumpet, drums, percussion, and guitar.
Every night on this fall tour, the ensemble also performs a complete live rendition of the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah, honoring the album’s 50th anniversary. Was co-founded Wolf Bros with the late Bob Weir, and a Glide Magazine review from an earlier tour stop noted the sold-out performance honored Weir’s memory, with the ensemble running more than two and a half hours and leaving the audience “totally tuned into the vibe from start to finish.”
Venue & Logistics
Asbury Hall at Babeville, at 341 Delaware Ave. in Buffalo, is a historic music hall well-suited to the scope of this ensemble. The Buffalo date falls on the Northeast leg of the 17-date fall tour, bringing this western New York room one of the fall’s more compelling touring packages. Presented by DSP Shows; showtime is 8 p.m.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets