Friday, May 1, 2026 - The Pan Detroit Ensemble's "Groove In The Face Of Adversity"

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5. That I could be so blind
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27. Went to the corner store to buy me
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37. guitar solo Oh we are the midnight marauders welcome to another edition of profiles a look into the music artistry lives and legacies of
38. the musicians and artists who define a uniquely creative era by breaking boundaries and finding
39. new influences while they not only ushered in social as well as political change they also
40. created immensely popular legacies that have truly stood the test of time.
41. Six-time Grammy-winning musician, producer, and composer and longtime head of Blue Note Records,
42. Don Wise has become one of music's most respected figures. His production credits
43. include the Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and many, many others.
44. His honors include a BAFTA award, backbeat, an Emmy, the Beatles, The Night That Changed America,
45. and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association. The Pan-Detroit
46. Ensemble features top-tier jazz musicians from Don's hometown and brings to life what Don
47. describes as the unique sound and feel to Detroit that permeates the music in a way that resonates
48. all over the globe. Welcome back to Profiles, Don Was. Thank you. Always glad to be here.
49. So we began our hour together with music from this new release, which this is going to be our
50. topic for the hour. Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble groove in the face of adversity. So
51. very excited to finally get to sit down and talk about it. It's out. It's available digitally.
52. on CD and vinyl.
53. The Pan-Detroit Ensemble sound is solidly rooted
54. in the soul and the unique music identity of Detroit.
55. When you talk about the ensemble,
56. how do you describe that soul of the Motor City
57. and how the Pan-Detroit Ensemble represents and reflects
58. the people and the culture of this city?
59. That's a good question, Maggie.
60. You know, when I grew up there in the 50s and the 60s,
61. it was a one industry town, right?
62. So everybody was in the same boat
63. and you didn't have to work on the assembly line to feel that.
64. My parents were both teachers,
65. but if auto sales were down,
66. they'd lay off workers who would leave town,
67. take their families with them to find new work.
68. And then consequently, teachers would get laid off
69. and barbers would get laid off
70. and waitresses would get laid off.
71. So everybody's kind of in the same boat there.
72. And when you have that situation, there's really no point in putting on any airs.
73. I didn't know anybody who leased a Mercedes to impress their friends because you weren't going to impress anybody.
74. Everyone knew who you were anyway.
75. The end result is you get a very honest population.
76. And I think that's reflected vividly in the music that comes from there.
77. And to me, John Lee Hooker is the ultimate example of Detroit music and everything that came out of Detroit subsequently, I think, was certainly influenced by him.
78. You listen to John Lee Hooker, man, it's so, so raw.
79. You know, you don't know if the song is going to fall apart in the next two seconds, but it never does.
80. Not only does it not fall apart, but it grooves like crazy.
81. And he's got this kind of conversational honesty that's so real.
82. And from that kind of raw soulfulness comes people like Mitch Ryder the MC5 the Stooges go right to Jack White
83. In R&B, it comes out in Fortune Records, comes out in the Motown stuff, comes out in J Dilla, you know, in George Clinton.
84. In the jazz world even, you know, there's something, if you listen to Elvin Jones, he's got a tremendous amount of finesse and incredible chops, but he's got this kind of raw energy to him.
85. He's the sophisticated jazz equivalent of the MC5, really.
86. So there's an energy to it.
87. And then also, people came from all over the world to work in the factories after World War II there.
88. So we grew up in this rich, cultural jambalaya where you heard everything.
89. And if you were a musician, you had to know how to play polkas.
90. You had to know how to play Arabic music.
91. You had to play everything.
92. So that became part of your vocabulary.
93. Terrence Blanchard called me a couple of years ago, and he was curating a series.
94. It was called the Paradise Valley Jazz Series.
95. Detroit originated jazz, and he asked if I wanted to do one of the nights there.
96. And I said, yes, but I didn't have a band together and didn't really have songs.
97. So I had to think of what to do.
98. And it just occurred to me not to try to be Robert Glasper.
99. Don't try to be Charles Lloyd.
100. Don't try to be Wayne Shorter.
101. Get in a room with like-minded people, people who grew up listening to the same radio stations that I did
102. and played in the same bars and many times for the same audiences with the same musicians.
103. So I called nine people that I knew that I'd played with over the years,
104. and we all got together.
105. And when we started playing, it became clear that we spoke this musical language of Detroit,
106. and it just felt like home immediately.
107. It was comfortable.
108. So I knew we should do more than this one concert, and we turned it into tours.
109. And, you know, now we've been going two years, and we made this album.
110. I'm working on another one now, and I can see just listening to the shows we did this year.
111. We toured for six weeks, all through January and half of February.
112. Band is always getting better.
113. Absolutely. You've only just begun.
114. Yeah, and you were a big supporter of this band from day one and came to one of our earliest shows.
115. And I can't wait for you to hear us play now, because it's really gotten up to another level.
116. Oh, absolutely. KPFK was really the first radio station that was able to play some of the early mixes before these final mixes. It was hot off the presses. I was just blown away by the sound of your mastering work and others involved with this recording.
117. Once again, Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble groove In the Face of Adversity.
118. It sounds so sweet, and it's really, really beautiful.
119. So you, and this is just kind of piggybacking on what you talked about as far as Detroit,
120. you've been quoted as saying you harbor no illusions about hit singles.
121. Tell us about the mission of the Pan-Detroit Ensemble that is sort of a higher calling,
122. and what you've called a noble undertaking.
123. Well, look, I think it's not just our mission.
124. It's really every artist's mission.
125. But sometimes we get waylaid and influenced by short thinking right So really what the goal is for everybody I think for you as a disc jockey who plays music for people
126. and curates and program regularities for people who work at record companies,
127. produce records, engineers like Marco here,
128. everyone's trying to do the same thing.
129. You want to create something that gets under people's skin,
130. makes them feel something,
131. and in the process runs the gamut from at least at a minimum
132. them taking their mind off of the chaos and confusion of everyday life for three and a
133. half minutes, and at best, really helps them make sense out of their lives, which the human
134. condition is not one that lends itself to easy understanding, I think.
135. It's always a work in progress, and we're always trying to get focused on what we're
136. trying to do.
137. It really goes back to how music influenced me when I was young.
138. In 1970, I was going to University of Michigan, and I was in a music school.
139. And back then, you either played in the symphony orchestra or you weren't in the music school.
140. And I didn't want to be in the orchestra.
141. I knew what I wanted to do.
142. So I dropped out, but I was kind of lost.
143. I wanted to be in a band like the Stooges.
144. and I wasn't making any progress.
145. I was working in an Italian restaurant
146. in a bowling alley in Ypsilanti, Michigan,
147. playing like Carpenters covers.
148. Nothing wrong with the Carpenters,
149. but it wasn't what I set out to do.
150. And I'd really kind of lost my way at like 19.
151. So what I would do to get refocused
152. was I'd go back to my apartment,
153. close the bedroom door,
154. put on the album Speak No Evil,
155. Wayne Shore album,
156. It turns out it's a Blue Nut record.
157. I think it's the crown jewel of the catalog, to be honest with you.
158. But I would play that record, and even the first song,
159. I put on side two.
160. It starts with the song Speak No Evil.
161. And I would listen, again, to Elvin being rambunctious,
162. and I could relate to that.
163. I'm a Detroit guy.
164. I get it.
165. Extra drive and energy and maybe a little angst.
166. I'd listen to Herbie Hancock
167. and he was so sophisticated
168. even in his 20s
169. probably knew more about harmony
170. than anybody walking the face of the earth
171. and I thought
172. okay I can relate to him
173. I'm a smart kid
174. but it's really Wayne's playing
175. that would really get a hold of me
176. I felt like he was speaking to me
177. it was conversational
178. I didn't hear saxophones
179. I didn't hear notes
180. I didn't hear reeds or technique
181. I heard a guy talking to me and I felt like he was like a big brother I pictured us walking down
182. main street in Ann Arbor and he was teaching me how to duck and dive in dicey situations right
183. and really by the time I got to the end of that side I remembered what my hopes and dreams were
184. got me refocused got me back on track and the fact that it was great music that did that was
185. not lost on me. And I thought, okay, this is not a bad calling in life. If you can do this, it'll be
186. fun and it won't feel like work. And the potential is there to really help people get through life.
187. So I think that's the intention. Hit singles, maybe they help get your music exposed to people,
188. but at a certain point in life, you realize that hit singles are by and large aimed at
189. teenagers and eventually you're not a teenager anymore.
190. Yeah.
191. Boy, does the time.
192. fly. Sure does. The older we get, it really starts a ticking. But, you know, when you speak of Wayne
193. so lovingly and so beautifully, it warms my heart. And thinking about the memory of one of the
194. Monterey Jazz Festivals, I believe it was 2017. You were there in the Blue Note tent. I got there
195. very early. No one was there. So I sat in the front row and, you know, they told me it was okay
196. to come in, I was like, I couldn't believe there wasn't anybody there because Wayne Shorter was
197. coming, like a king was coming, you know? So I got my backpack and just got situated and you came
198. and Wayne sat in front of me and it was just an incredible conversation. And I felt so much of
199. that, you know, brotherhood, but also mentorship. And that's so much I know of what great musicians
200. do and, you know, what you do in so many ways, because you're the heartbeat of this band
201. and it's all coming together and it's just so beautiful.
202. So I want to talk a little bit about the repertoire and the name of the album, Groove in the Face
203. of Adversity.
204. How do you choose the tunes?
205. And you talk about a gumbo.
206. I mean, how did they come to be as eclectic as compositions by Hank Williams?
207. We have Kenny Barron, and that was for Yusef Lateef, Lina Romano, the great Curtis Mayfield, and Larry Blackman.
208. That's Cameo.
209. That's my band from the 1980s.
210. I wish I could tell you there was some grand design.
211. When I started playing with Bob Weir in 2018, he called me up and asked if I wanted to put together a trio called the Wolf Brothers with Jay Lane.
212. And, you know, he was fearless about going out there with an underdeveloped concept behind the band, because we couldn't know until we played with each other a whole bunch what direction this band was going to take and what it was going to become.
213. But he had no qualms about getting up there in front of 2,500 people a night and figuring it out.
214. And what I learned from him was that's okay.
215. People don't mind being part of that process, but it takes a minute to really figure out what a band is.
216. The songs on this first album were basically songs that we started playing just to kind of test the parameters of where we were stylistically comfortable.
217. What's the range of this thing where we can still be honest?
218. What kind of songs can we play and still be ourselves?
219. And it turned out there was quite a bit of range.
220. And also, you figure out ways to make songs your own.
221. That was another thing I learned from playing with Bobby was, you know, when I first started playing with him, man, I was chasing Phil Lesh musically, which I don't advise anybody to because he was a genius unto himself.
222. And he just did this thing that is really not, you can imitate it, but you can't be it.
223. Only Phil could be it.
224. So I was stumped about how to approach these songs because I thought the audience expected to hear it played like Phil.
225. And Bobby pulled me aside after the first couple nights and he said, you know, if you want to play these songs right the way Grateful Dead played them, be yourself.
226. That's all anybody in the Grateful Dead was doing.
227. That's all Phil was doing.
228. He was being Phil.
229. You be you.
230. Well, that was tremendous to hear.
231. and it gave me license to stop imitating and be honest So it kind of the same with these things with the songs from this first album We had to figure out a way to make a Hank Williams song
232. sound like these nine people.
233. And boy, do you ever.
234. I do want to remind folks,
235. you're listening to Profiles with Maggie LaPique.
236. Joining me this hour is a true musical renaissance man, Don Was.
237. were discussing his group, the Pan-Detroit Ensemble,
238. and the release of their first recording, Groove in the Face of Adversity.
239. And it was released not too long ago.
240. This is a new release from the Mack Avenue label, which I love very, very much.
241. So we're going to go now to the Curtis Mayfield song, This Is My Country.
242. Do you want to talk about it for a sec?
243. Yeah, well, you know, I do a radio show on the local NPR station in Detroit, WDET.
244. I do it every Friday night.
245. And it just kind of harkens back to free-form radio.
246. It would fit very well on KPF.
247. I'd like to put it on.
248. But we need to change those call letters.
249. Yes, I think so.
250. So one night I played this Curtis Mayfield song, This Is My Country.
251. and I just remember digging the song when I heard it in 1966,
252. but as I played it, you know, 60 years later,
253. I was struck by the fact that it's more relevant today
254. than it even was in 1966, which I didn't see coming.
255. I don't know how you felt about it,
256. but I thought over the years
257. things were going to take a little different turn.
258. I didn't see the country ending up where it is at the moment.
259. And so it just felt like this is a song that we should play every night.
260. We close our shows with it.
261. And it's not so much to preach as it is to just let people know,
262. if you're feeling confused and if you're feeling dazed and confused
263. about what's happening in this world, you're not alone.
264. We feel the same way.
265. And if all the people who feel the same way would put their energy together,
266. it could probably change the way things are happening.
267. So that's why we included the song on the record.
268. Some people think that we don't have the right
269. To say it's my country
270. Before they give in they'd rather fuss and fight
271. Than say it's my country
272. I've paid 300 years or more
273. Of slave driving sweat
274. And welts on my back
275. This is my country
276. Too many have died in protecting my pride
277. For me to go second class
278. And we survived a heart blow
279. But I want you to know
280. That your face is the last
281. And I know you will give consideration
282. Shall we perish under
283. Live equal as a nation
284. This is my country Ooh ooh ooh And I know you will give consideration
285. Shall we perish on just or live equal as a nation
286. This is my country
287. This is my, this is my
288. My country, my
289. Yeah, yeah, yeah
290. This is my, this is my
291. Country
292. From the new album, Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble,
293. Groove in the Face of Adversity,
294. from the great, the one and the only Curtis Mayfield,
295. This Is My Country.
296. I can feel Curtis in your rendition.
297. It is so cool.
298. It didn't warrant dramatic change.
299. Yeah.
300. I mean, I feel Curtis right there.
301. Don, let's talk about the remarkable musicians that make up the Pan-Detroit Ensemble.
302. Sure.
303. There are two musicians that you've evidently been working with for a long time.
304. Tell us who they are, how you met them, and when you guys started working together.
305. All right.
306. Well, two of them, Dave McMurray, who's a Blue Note recording artist,
307. who you've been very supportive of as our saxophone player.
308. Luis Resto is a keyboard player.
309. Both those guys I've been playing with for 45 years.
310. They were on the very first Was Not Was records.
311. Before we even made an album, we did some singles there on it.
312. They were in the band always.
313. Luis is probably best known for his collaborations with Eminem.
314. He co-wrote, co-produced a lot of stuff, including Lose Yourself,
315. which he won an Oscar for.
316. Eminem didn't show up.
317. Louis got up and Barbra Streisand gave him an Oscar.
318. How cool is that?
319. It's really cool.
320. He's wearing a Detroit Pistons jersey under his jacket.
321. And then the singer is a singer named Stephanie Christian,
322. who's just a world-class vocalist,
323. one of the best singers I ever heard in my life, man.
324. She'd been touring for years with Kevin Saunderson
325. and inner-city Detroit techno genius.
326. The trombone player is Professor Vincent Chandler,
327. Heads of the Jazz Studies Program at Wayne State University.
328. John Douglas, the trumpet player,
329. toured with Betty LeVette and the Four Tops and the Temptations.
330. Wayne Gerard, great guitar player.
331. He was in Patti Smith's band for a while,
332. played with Wayne Kramer.
333. Bob James, he toured with all kinds of folks.
334. The drummer was just a killer man, Jeff Kennedy.
335. He toured with Michael Henderson,
336. played in Michael Henderson's band,
337. plays in Dave McMurray's band.
338. And Mahindi Masai is the percussionist.
339. He worked with Roy Brooks, Max Roach, Aboriginal Percussion Choir, just a really accomplished
340. musician and teacher in Detroit.
341. The group is just it kind of amazing that you all got together But you know you kind of handpicked everybody and had more experience with some than others
342. And there's a lot of great singers out there.
343. But I just wanted to talk a little bit further about Stephanie Christian because she blew the roof off the Canyon Club when I saw her live.
344. I mean, the band, everybody, you know, was part of that explosion.
345. But, man, she's something else.
346. Yeah, she's something else.
347. So why do you think she's such a good fit for the band Detroit Ensemble?
348. Well, because she defies genre, I think.
349. She just tells the truth, and she's got a soulful way of phrasing,
350. and she's listened to all kinds of music, from reggae music to rock and roll.
351. And I think that's the thing about the band.
352. I can't really give you a short sentence that sums up what style of music we play.
353. You know something? Years ago, when I first kind of got on a roll as a record producer in the early 90s, I got to work with a lot of my heroes.
354. People I think are just the greatest writers around, you know.
355. Willie Nelson, Chris Christopherson, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Jackson Brown, Mick and Keith, Brian Wilson.
356. Well, if you're in the room with that kind of talent in a short period of time, you kind of, well, I developed writer's block.
357. That was severe, man.
358. Because every time I'd sit down at the piano to start writing something, I'd give up after 15 seconds.
359. I'd say, what is the point, man, when Brian Wilson is like a mile away?
360. Let's just give him this lyric and have him write something.
361. So for about five years, I couldn't come up with anything.
362. And one day I was in the studio with Willie Nelson.
363. And again, I'm looking at him and just feeling remorse about the fact that I could never be Willie Nelson.
364. And then it clicked.
365. It hit me.
366. Yeah, but Willie Nelson can't be you.
367. Willie Nelson didn't drop acid and go see the MC5 in the Grandy Ballroom.
368. Willie Nelson didn't have George Clinton in the Parliament's lip sync.
369. I just want to testify it as sock hop, but it was junior high school.
370. So the thing that makes you unique, which, by the way, in the music business is often considered to be a marketing problem.
371. If you're not just like everything else, it's not.
372. The thing that makes you different from everybody else is actually your superpower.
373. You want to emphasize that.
374. So that's kind of what we try to do with Pan Detroit Ensemble.
375. We all come from Detroit.
376. We all listen to a broad range of musical styles.
377. We don't care about a genre.
378. We actually take a kind of a sadistic pride in not being categorizable.
379. And the band is full of genre rebels, basically.
380. Best exemplified by Stephanie, who you cannot categorize.
381. Yes, she is an extraordinary part of the group.
382. So one of the key things about the group is seeing them live.
383. The record is great.
384. I mean, you know, you got to have that when you can't see them live.
385. But thank goodness you're going to be starting another tour for this year, 2026.
386. You can check out DonWaz.com.
387. Yeah, actually, in Los Angeles, we're going to be playing at The Lodge Room.
388. The Lodge Room.
389. And that's not until?
390. July the 7th.
391. Yes.
392. Yeah. And we're going to play our set, a lot of things from the record, some other things. We've been writing some new songs that we'll probably work in. But also in the middle of that set to honor the 50th anniversary of the album, we're going to do the entirety of Blue.
393. It was for Allah.
394. Oh, the Grateful Dead album.
395. Yeah, we do it in sequence and in order, but Detroit-icized a little bit.
396. You know, I'd be amiss if I didn't talk a little bit about Bobby Weir and that we lost him just earlier last year, 2025.
397. This iconic figure in music, so beloved.
398. The response of his passing was just enormous.
399. I was so moved by some of the things that I was reading from you and so many others in so many different genres of music, you know, from Ron Carter to Don Was and everything in between.
400. What was it about Bobby Weir?
401. I mean, you spoke about him a little bit earlier, but what was it about Bobby that made him such a light in all the darkness?
402. Well, people who really have that are just kind of born that way.
403. I don't think it's something they can teach in music school or any kind of school.
404. You just radiate something extra.
405. And I just think that probably if we had met him when he was nine years old, he probably had that.
406. But in addition to being a magnetic character, he was a brilliant musician and a fearless musician.
407. When he first called me in 2018,
408. Rob Wasserman had introduced us in the 90s
409. when the two of them were playing together.
410. And he called me up in 2018,
411. which was a couple years after Rob had passed.
412. And he said that Wasserman came to him in a dream.
413. And he said, the reason I introduced you to Don
414. is because he's supposed to take my place in your band when I'm gone.
415. So even in this dream, he had the name The Wolf Brothers,
416. spelled B-R-O-S.
417. It was a complete vision he had.
418. He said, so do you want to do it?
419. I said, you know, of course I do, man.
420. But in addition to everything it would offer musically,
421. what I was really intrigued by was the idea that maybe some of that fearlessness would rub off on me.
422. And I could apply it not just to playing bass, but to how I lived my life.
423. there's a lot to be learned from improvisers and people who go moment to moment not knowing what's
424. coming next and not being afraid of what's coming next and he was utterly fearless and just playing
425. with him i loved being in his band i loved being weird bass player man every second of the show
426. was interesting but we'd play for three hours my mind never drifted from the music i was never
427. bored ever, but just to be engaged in a conversation with a musician like that who
428. could be as raw as John Lee Hooker or be as sophisticated as Segovia or as sophisticated
429. as McCoy Tyner and who just approached with this kind of jagged phrasing. And also,
430. the point of the Wolf Brothers Band was to allow Bobby the freedom to deliver the lyrics
431. with fresh meaning every single night
432. so that his phrasing was never locked in.
433. And he never sang them the same way twice.
434. And he threw himself 100%
435. into telling those stories for people.
436. That was one of the things I realized
437. was a great part of the allure of The Grateful Dead
438. lies in those Robert Hunter and John Barlow lyrics, man.
439. It's great poetry.
440. It beautiful It impressionistic and everybody can find something to hang their hat on And you could see by watching the audience that it would be a different line for every
441. person, but it would resonate so deeply with them.
442. Everybody could hang their own unique inner emotional lives on those songs.
443. So to be in a band with one of the originators of the whole Grateful Dead experience and
444. to distill it down to the essence like that.
445. It was a really rewarding and beautiful experience.
446. I still haven't come to terms with the fact
447. that we're not going to get to do it again.
448. Or that you're not going to be able to call him,
449. hear his voice again.
450. But, you know, Bobby's right there, you know.
451. He is so ubiquitous.
452. Yeah.
453. You know, they got a channel on Sirius XM satellite radio, right,
454. that plays nothing but Grateful Dead 24 hours a day.
455. So in many ways, it is like he's not gone.
456. The music remains.
457. Maybe that's why I'm having trouble dealing with it,
458. because he's still so present.
459. We love you, Bobby Weir.
460. Yeah.
461. You are listening to Profiles on KPFK.
462. My name is Maggie LaPique, your host,
463. and joining me in this very special hour is a true musical.
464. I'm going to say it again.
465. He's a Renaissance man.
466. And we're talking about a lot of things,
467. But mainly, of course, the release from Mack Avenue.
468. Don was in the Pan Detroit Ensemble, Groove in the Face of Adversity.
469. And I think about who would have been great in announcing this group and this particular title, Groove in the Face of Adversity, would have been Cannonball Adderley.
470. Because every time I say it, I hear Cannonball's voice.
471. Adversity.
472. I think the word adversity is in the intro to Mercy Mercy, isn't it?
473. I guess that's where it comes from.
474. I forgot exactly what he says, but he says something about dealing with adversity.
475. I'll tell you where it came from, if you want.
476. Sure.
477. In 1966, I was 14 years old, and my mom was making me run errands with her on a weekend.
478. And I wanted to be hanging out at the Northland Shopping Mall with my friends.
479. So I was being a really grumpy, miserable kid, and she finally just left me in the car with the keys and said, play with the dial.
480. And so it was just AM radio, but unbeknownst to me, there was a jazz station in Detroit called WCHD,
481. and there was an R&B station on the AM dial called WCHB, which was owned by the same people.
482. And on the weekends, they'd simulcast the jazz station.
483. So I didn't even know anything about jazz, but I was just in a terrible mood, man, and I'm playing with the dial, and I landed on the jazz station just as a saxophone solo was beginning, which I later discovered was a Joe Henderson song called Mode for Joe.
484. It's a Blue Note record.
485. It was my first exposure to anything Blue Note, anything jazz, really.
486. And the DJ, Ed Love, the great Detroit jazz DJ,
487. still on the air in Detroit in his 90s.
488. He would back announce every record so you could find out who was playing on it.
489. Anyway, so if you want, go to Spotify,
490. go about 46 seconds into the song Mode for Joe by Joe Henderson.
491. And he starts out making these kind of anguished cries.
492. I said, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
493. Yeah, man, I'd never heard a saxophone do that before.
494. I was just playing with the dial, and here's this angst.
495. And it perfectly matched my mood, being stuck driving around with my mom on a Saturday, right?
496. So I could relate to it.
497. But what happens is the drummer Joe Chambers kind of kicks in and he starts swinging on the ride cymbal And eventually Joe Henderson falls into the pocket And I thought he was talking to me I thought he was saying Don do what I doing
498. You got to groove in the face of adversity.
499. And it made sense to me.
500. You know, in the course of three, four minutes, he changed my mood 180 degrees with his playing.
501. There weren't even lyrics there, man.
502. And, you know, it was like, how could he tell a story so succinctly on a saxophone like that?
503. And when my mom got back in the car, I was nice.
504. And it just always stuck with me.
505. Plus, it turned me into a jazz fan.
506. I had to go out and buy an FM radio for the house so I could listen to the jazz station.
507. And I'd tune into Ed Love every night.
508. And I'd learn about the records and the musicians.
509. I started buying them.
510. And it really became clear that I had an affinity for the music from this little label out of New York called Blue Note Records.
511. But you never could have convinced me in 1966 that in 2026 I'd be the president of the label and have been doing the gig for now 15 years.
512. Before you arrived here at the studio, Marco, the engineer, and I, you know, I brought him the album.
513. I said, check out this cover.
514. I said, look at this photo.
515. and this is Joe's record store in Detroit. Tell us about this photo and Joe's records.
516. Well, Joe's record store was like kind of a headquarters for Detroit music and in particular
517. black music in Detroit. Had a little studio in the back and he recorded all kinds of stuff. John
518. Lee Hooker made a lot of records back in the studio and he released John Lee Hooker. He
519. recorded Aretha Franklin for the first time, which was 14 and back in the shop. It was part of a
520. thriving area called Black Bottom, which is the black community. And it's right on what was the
521. main street, Hastings Street. And in part of a pattern of just horrible actions in the 1950s,
522. there was this program called Urban Renewal that ostensibly was there to fix up cities, but
523. was really used to annihilate the black communities in major cities of the country.
524. And they tore down Hastings Street.
525. It's an entrance ramp to a freeway now.
526. Could have been a mile over.
527. Wouldn't have made any difference.
528. Could have been half a mile over.
529. But they ran it right down Hastings Street and got rid of all these great clubs and places
530. like Joe's Record Store.
531. But it still, to me, is the spiritual home of Detroit music.
532. So there's this beautiful shot that's actually from a photo shoot, a French photographer for a John Lee Hooker album cover where he's standing in front of this record store. And this is just another picture from that shoot. And my wife Gemma photoshopped the band into the photo.
533. It looks like we're standing in front of Joe's record store, which, metaphorically speaking, is exactly what we're doing with the music on the album.
534. Absolutely.
535. So it's really an acknowledgment of where it all came from.
536. It's really, really a beautiful photo.
537. And I was wondering, who photoshopped you guys in there?
538. Go Gemma.
539. It's a family affair.
540. Yeah, exactly.
541. So let's hear one more song.
542. And then we're going to wrap up and talk a little bit about what your current duties are with being the Prez.
543. I always call Don the Prez.
544. Not to be confused with Lester Young.
545. Yeah, not to be confused with that other Prez.
546. Billy's Prez.
547. Lady Day's Prez.
548. This is our Prez of the great Blue Note label Let listen to another song from the album Don Was and the Pan Ensemble Groove in the Face of Adversity And I picked out the Kenny Barron song Nubian Lady
549. This was one, man, I'd played the Yusef Lateef version on the radio show the night before the
550. first get-together of the band. And I said, let's try this one. That sounded pretty good on the
551. radio last night and David Murray did some incredible flutes a lot. And this comes from
552. that concert in Detroit, the Terrence Blanchard one that we put the band together for. We recorded
553. that show. When we go in the studio to record, we set up the same way we set up live and we play
554. live. We don't really do much in a way of overdubs on these records. So on this album, we interchange
555. live performances from studio performances.
556. Depends, like on Midnight Marauders,
557. I think some of the restraint that you have in the studio
558. created a certain mood that live,
559. you might get a little too much exuberance,
560. which would overpower the song.
561. But some of them really benefited
562. from having an audience there to interact with
563. and to feed off of.
564. This is one of them.
565. Actually, this was recorded live at SF Jazz in San Francisco.
566. So this is what an audience can do for you.
567. Thank you.
568. uh
569. uh
570. Thank you.
571. ¶¶
572. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
573. Thank you.
574. Thank you.
575. Thank you
576. Thank you.
577. Thank you.
578. Thank you.
579. Nubian Lady, the Pan-Detroit Ensemble.
580. Don Was' latest group is a band made up of stellar jazz musicians from his hometown.
581. The band includes longtime collaborators like Blue Note Records artist Dave McMurray on saxophone,
582. and we heard him just a few minutes ago on the flute.
583. He plays all-reed instruments.
584. and Eminem's Oscar-winning collaborator, keyboardist Luis Resto.
585. Additional musicians include trombonist Vincent Chandler,
586. trumpeter John Douglas, drummer Jeff Kennedy,
587. just like Kennedy, but it's C-A-N-A-D-Y,
588. percussionist Mahindy Masai, guitarist Wayne Gerard,
589. and vocalist Stephanie Christian.
590. A stellar group of artists, and congratulations, Don,
591. on such a beautiful, beautiful recording.
592. Yeah, thank you.
593. But we would be remiss if we didn't ask for an update
594. of what you're doing, what's going on,
595. what's coming up over at Blue Note Records.
596. I think our release schedule this year
597. is one of the best in the history of the companies.
598. We got some incredible things coming Emanuel Wilkins just put out a beautiful album recorded live at the Village Vanguard Julian Lodge just released a really cool record I really excited about Michelle and Diggie Urcello new album
599. which she just delivered to us.
600. I think it's one of the greatest records I ever heard in my life.
601. Wow.
602. It's a series of duets and of cover songs,
603. But we have a really cool cast of characters from Chaka Khan to Brandi Carlile sing with her.
604. But it's the way that it's done.
605. It still feels like one voice as opposed to one of these duets albums where everyone's trying to out-sing each other.
606. The title of it is Synonym, which is, you know, synonym, words that sound different but mean the same thing.
607. So the stress in these duets is really on the meaning.
608. And when I hear just a little production details in there, she's just a total genius, man.
609. What an incredible career she's had, always pushing the boundaries of music.
610. And I think it's the best record she ever made and one of the best ones I've heard in my life.
611. That's a little inside scoop that you're not going to find anywhere else but here on Profiles and KPFK, 90.7 FM, Los Angeles.
612. Finally, I wanted to ask you if you could just let us in on what has been the most rewarding and challenging about running Blueno Records.
613. The challenge of it is to keep the doors open without compromising the ethos of the company, the soul of the company,
614. which was laid out very clearly in 1939 when our founders released the first Blueno Records.
615. and they wrote a little manifesto where they talked about the pursuit of authentic music,
616. music with integrity, and giving uncompromising freedom of expression to the artists.
617. So we take that very seriously, and that doesn't always go hand in hand with huge commercial success.
618. but everyone who works at the company
619. just a great staff of people
620. small staff
621. we're part of Universal Music Group
622. part of Capitol Records
623. but they're just seven people
624. that work for Blue Note
625. and they're all
626. really protective
627. of the legacy of the label
628. and of the
629. I don't know how to say it better
630. than to say the ethos
631. that unifies all the releases
632. from 1939 to the present day.
633. So that's the challenge.
634. Keep the doors open in crazy times.
635. And you are doing an amazing job.
636. I just can't think of anyone else more qualified
637. because you've got that open, beautiful, creative mind.
638. And then, of course, the integrity to keep Blue Note going forward.
639. Congratulations on all of your great work.
640. Thank you.
641. One of the best ways to keep up with Don, I remember one of the first times we interviewed together, I said, don't you have a social media, anything? And you were like, well, my Instagram account, if you're into slow news. So we've been friends a while because I've noticed you've picked up quite a few followers since that first interview we had on the great Greg Allman.
642. That's right.
643. Don Was in the Pan Detroit Ensemble, Groove in the Face of Adversity.
644. That's the name of his latest album.
645. There's lots more to come.
646. But DonWas.com.
647. Real simple.
648. And you can get all of the updates on all the tour You can get tickets for the shows And you begin this tour on July 4th Yeah July 4th yeah
649. And that'll be the Waterfront Blues Festival.
650. In Portland, yeah.
651. Portland, Oregon.
652. And then in the back half, we'll go down the West Coast a little bit.
653. There's a High Sierra Festival.
654. And then there's our show at Lodge Room, which is really our first L.A. show.
655. So I'm very excited to do that.
656. and then a couple more shows in
657. we're going to join up with
658. Willie Nelson and his Outlaw
659. Country Tour which seems
660. like a stretch for a soul jazz band
661. from Detroit but I think it's going to be
662. really cool so we'll open a bunch
663. of shows for Willie across the country
664. and that's
665. well go to DonWoz.com
666. but the Outlaw Music Festival
667. 2026 I believe is in Chicago
668. Don Woz I want to
669. thank you so much for spending
670. time with us today. Always a
671. guest. Pleasure to see you and thank you
672. for all you do for making great
673. radio. KPFK
674. is a miracle station.
675. I listen to it all the time and
676. you've introduced
677. so much great music to people. You do
678. a really beautiful job and keep on
679. keeping on, please. Thank you so much,
680. Don.
681. Thanks for joining us for this edition of Profiles
682. And please join me next time for another in-depth look at the legendary musicians and artists who changed the trajectory, opened our minds, and who continue to inspire us.
683. I'm your host and producer, Maggie LaPete.
684. Special thanks to my guests, Don Woz, my producers, Jerry O and Andrea Love, engineer Mark the Extraordinaire Maxwell, engineer extraordinaire number two, Marco Moyer, at Love Street Sound Studios in Glendale.
685. We invite you to check out the audio archives of this show for Fridays at 7 p.m.
686. If you missed any part of it or would like to hear it again, it's available for two weeks at KPFK.org.
687. Remember, it's the first Friday of the month at 7 p.m. on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles.
688. And finally, be sure to check out my podcast, Profiles with Maggie LaPique, available on Spotify, Google, and Apple Podcasts, or on most podcast platforms.
689. guitar solo
690. Hello, hello.
691. This is Andrea Love just popping in to let you know that I'm going to be back on the KPFK Airwaves this Saturday morning.
692. Join me from 9 a.m. until 10 for another rock and roll radio special.
693. That's this Saturday morning, May 2nd from 9 until 10 a.m.
694. here on 90.7 FM, KPFK Los Angeles and worldwide online at kpfk.org.
695. Support comes in part from The Broad Stage,
696. co-presenting the Santa Monica International Jazz Festival Friday, May 1st through Saturday, May 9th.
697. The week-long celebration bridges the history of jazz with its future
698. and highlights include a centennial tribute to John Coltrane with Isaiah Collier.
699. and Lakeisha Benjamin, and
700. A Day in the Park featuring Kamasi