How Don Was returned to his Detroit roots for fresh musical inspiration

When the jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard invited his friend, the musician-producer Don Was, to headline a night at a jazz series Blanchard was curating for the Detroit Symphony in 2024, Was said yes – even though he didn’t actually have a band or any songs at the time.

“Then I had to think about what to do,” says Was, who in the ’80s recorded and toured with the eclectic rock-jazz band Was (Not Was) before shifting his focus to producing. “And I flashed back to the early ’90s...