Blue Note New York
Don Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble

$20 Minimum Per Person
Full Bar & Dinner Menu
NO REFUNDS OR EXCHANGES.

  • All seating is first come, first served. 
  • Bar Area seating is limited and first come first served. When all available seats are occupied, the remaining bar area is standing room only.
  • Table Seating is all ages, Bar Area is 21+. Bar Area tickets for patrons under 21 will not be honored. 

Group Reservations:

  • Groups larger than 8 must purchase a group package at club@bluenote.net, or by calling 212.475.8592.
  • Groups larger than 8 without a group package will be subject to group surcharges added to your bill. 
  • Groups arriving late or separately are not guaranteed to be seated together. All seating is first come, first served. Arrive early for best seats.

Tickets for Blue Note New York shows are only available for purchase on Ticketweb. We are not affiliated with any third-party sellers. Tickets purchased on third-party sites will not be honored. The credit card used for original purchase of tickets will be required at the door upon entry.

 
 

  • Don Was & The Pan Detroit Ensemble

    DON WAS
    Music has always loomed large in the life of Don Was. Born in Detroit in 1952, he has enjoyed a multi-faceted
    career as a musician, record producer, music director, film composer, documentary filmmaker, and radio host.
    Since 2011, he has also served as President of America’s venerated jazz label, Blue Note Records.
    As a record producer, he has won six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year in 1989 for Bonnie Raitt’s
    Nick of Time and Producer of the Year in 1994. Albums he has produced have sold close to 100 million copies for
    a wide array of artists such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Mayer, Ringo Starr, Wayne
    Shorter, The B-52s, and Charles Lloyd. In 1995, he produced and directed the Brian Wilson documentary I Just
    Wasn’t Made For These Times, which won the San Francisco Film Festival’s Golden Gate Award. As a film
    composer, he received the 1994 British Academy Award (BAFTA) for Best Original Score for the film Backbeat.
    He also won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction for CBS’s The Beatles: The Night That
    Changed America.
    In 2018, Don joined Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir to form the Wolf Brothers, a band that continues to tour
    in the U.S. and overseas. In April 2023, he served as Music Director for Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday celebration
    at the Hollywood Bowl, and he is featured in the Willie Nelson & Family documentary on Paramount+. In
    September 2024, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Americana Music Foundation at
    Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. He also hosts Dinner With Don Was, a weekly radio show on John Mayer’s
    SiriusXM Channel 14.
    At Blue Note Records, Don fiercely protects the label’s 85-year-old legacy, meticulously preserving its revered
    catalog of Black American Music. His work includes overseeing acclaimed vinyl reissue series such as Tone Poet
    and Classic Vinyl, as well as signing and producing many of the label’s current artists, including Robert Glasper,
    Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Gregory Porter, and Jason Moran.
    Don’s deep Detroit roots keep him closely tied to the city. For the past 15 years, he has music-directed and
    played bass in the Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue, part of Detroit’s annual diversity festival, the Concert of
    Colors. From 2009 to 2012, he hosted The Motor City Hayride on SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country channel, and since
    2021 he has co-hosted The Don Was Motor City Playlist, a live weekly show on Detroit’s NPR station WDET-FM.
    Don is also the voice of Neville the Dog in the hit Amazon Prime Video children’s series Pete the Cat.
    THE PAN-DETROIT ENSEMBLE
    Don Was’ latest group, The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, features top-tier jazz musicians from his hometown. “There’s
    a unique sound and feel to Detroit that permeates the music in a way that resonates all over the globe,” says
    Was. “There’s a rawness, a lack of pretension, and an unmistakable underlying groove that reflects the people
    and culture of the entire city.”
    The band includes longtime collaborators such as Blue Note artist Dave McMurray on saxophone and Eminem’s
    Oscar-winning collaborator, keyboardist Luis Resto. Additional members include trombonist Vincent Chandler,
    trumpeter John Douglas, drummer Jeff Canaday, percussionist Mahindi Masai, guitarist Wayne Gerard, and
    vocalist Steffanie Christi’an.
    “When the opportunity came to put together a new band, the message was clear: go back to Detroit where I
    came from, be who I am, play like who I am, and team up with like-minded individuals,” says Was.
    The Pan-Detroit Ensemble debuted in 2024 and 2025 and will continue touring the U.S. and select international
    markets in support of their forthcoming debut album, Groove in the Face of Adversity, to be released October
    10 on Mack Avenue Music.
    Drawing on the wide-ranging influences of his five-decade career, Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble’s Groove in the Face of Adversity channels the soul of the Motor City through a blend of steamy jazz, juke-joint blues, and loose-limbed funk—a sound both timeless and deeply personal. In concert, Don and the band will feature music from Groove in the Face of Adversity alongside a live rendition of The Grateful Dead’sBlues for Allah, honoring the album’s 50th anniversary

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