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.
