Review | Is What it Was

Legendary Producer/Record Exec/Artist Don Was Cranks Up Infectious Old and New Sounds from Detroit, at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara

Don Was and his Pan-Detroit Ensemble at the Lobero Theatre | Photo: David Bazemore

Some of the most memorable moments in the line of concert-going duty come lined with elements of mystery and surprise. Those qualities were under the hood of the hard-to-describe but potent and rootsy Lobero blowout last week featuring Don Was and his Pan-Detroit Ensemble, one of the more infectiously energetic and soulful events of the season. A palpable buzz shook the beloved 100-year-old room on that Wednesday night, with a sizable crowd seemingly lost in a happy haze of old school R&B, funk, jam-bandery, jazz and general good vibes.

But what was it about, inquiring minds and FOMO types want to know?

With this unique regional medicine show project, Was has cooked up a new/old motor city groove machine. Was, barefooted and with signature hat, dreadlocks, and shades, was the cool-headed bassist centerpiece of a crack band of mostly veteran and star-powered musicians from his hometown of Detroit. The 10-piece instrumental group, fortified with a pumping rhythm section and three horns, also benefited from the superlative vocalist Steffanie Christ’ian showing her nuanced and powerful stuff on several songs — including a simmering soul redux of Hank Williams’s “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ but Time” and a stirring finale of Curtis Mayfield’s riff-fueled anthem “This Is My Country.”

Many potential audience members may have failed to recognize the name Don Was on the Lobero marquee. For some music heads, though, Was’s name arrives with multi-layered reputation preceding it, spanning a storied career has included a lofty producer résumé, as head of Blue Note Records for 13 years so far, and a bassist-artist who started out as half the gonzo cool band known as Was (Not Was). His recent musical projects have included playing bass with Bob Weir and the Wolf Brothers, a late life Dead-headed alignment for Was which he touched on with Pan-Detroit Ensemble’s glowing new arrangements of the Dead tune “Shakedown Street” — duly funk-ified — and Jerry Garcia’s “The Loser.”

Don Was and his Pan-Detroit Ensemble at the Lobero Theatre | Photo: David Bazemore

I caught the band again in a more compact set on the outdoor Garden Stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival last weekend, but the Lobero experience was longer, stronger and, well, warmer. Literally and musically.

Song-wise, Was steers clear of any kind of easy greatest hits or obvious choices in this Detroit celebration: it seems to be more about the strengths and sensitivities of the musicians involved. Standouts in the group include tenor sax strongman David McMurray, saxist to the rock stars (Rolling Stones, etc.) and also an artist on Was’s Blue Note roster, limber guitarist Jeff Canady, and the stellar trombonist Vincent Chandler — whose imaginative extended solo, from vaporousness to hyper-syncopated note maze-making was the solo of the night.

Jazz connections came in waves of ear-friendly vamps and stretch-outs, with the sweet pulse and pull of Detroiter Yusef Lateef’s “Caribbean Lady” and the heady swamp confection of “I Can’t Wait ‘Til I Get Home” by the typically more cerebral jazz titan Henry Threadgill. Reggae reared its head, gently, on “Midnight Marauders” and songs, proper, were always subject to kneading and tweaking into jammable chill zones.

Was mostly played the role of the foundational bassist amidst bold players who all got their spotlighted showcase moments due. But early in the set, as if to remind us of his experimental formative years, Was coolly took to the microphone to recite the hipster-absurdist text of the old Was (Not Was) feelgood tune “I Feel Better than James Brown.” Hand on my heart, so did I and apparently many others, on this special night out.