For Don Was, the Pan-Detroit Ensemble’s debut album — the topically titled “Groove in the Face of Adversity” — “is a handshake, a ‘nice to meet ya, here’s who we are’” proposition. “It’s a postcard of where we’re at right now,” the Grammy Award-winning producer and Blue Note Records president from Oak Park adds.

The six-track set is also a primer for exactly what he considers the ensemble to be, which, of course, is right in its name.

“The one thing overall that’s really a guiding like is, ‘Does this sound like Detroit?’” Was (nee Fagenson) explains. He put the nine-member group — featuring alumni from his band Was (Not Was) and other metro area players — together just last year to play a March 2024 concert for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Paradise Jazz Series. Other dates were added

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