DON WAS DETROIT SUPER SESSION AT THE CONCERT OF COLORS

By John Sinclair

There's always a fantastic variety of great music of many idioms being made in Detroit, but it takes a national breakout to bring any significant local attention to the work of its resident musicians. So they labor on to create new music and maintain their commitment to artistic expression despite the accustomed commercial obscurity and the relentless indifference of their fellow citizens, playing in little joints for friends and neighbors and trying to find an audience for their hard-won musical offerings.

So Don Was lit a big fire in Detroit last fall when he eased into town, locked down the 54 Sound Studio on 9 Mile Road for a long weekend and paraded a wildly diverse collection of contemporary music-makers before the Wasmopolitan video cameras and Steve King's recording console to cut a series of numbers for the website that would spotlight the musical richness and insane variety of the Motor City today.

Was is from here--he grew up in Oak Park and he's always known about what goes down in the D--but he's one of the handful of modern Detroiters who's gained international fame and universal acclaim: as producer of his own unique ensemble, Was (Not Was), with David Was, and of hit recordings by Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, the Black Crowes, the Rolling Stones and other established stars.

Now fairly well set up himself, Don's in a position to do pretty much what he wants, and he fulfilled a long-recurring dream when he came back into Detroit last October and tapped his old-time partner Luis Resto, the reunited Ramrods, the Black Bottom Collective, Nomo, Sisters Lucas, the Go, the venerable Black Merda, the Muldoons, David McMurray, and this writer to come out to 9 Mile Road and make some music and see what might could happen to put present-day Detroit music in the spotlight.

Well, one good thing can still lead to another, and when Ismael Ahmed of the Arab American Museum checked out the videos from the Detroit Wasmopolitan Road Trip on www.mydamnchannel.com he could see Don's vision on another level--presented on stage at Max Fisher Hall as part of the annual Concert of Colors produced by his organization every summer. Ismael asked Don to think about staging a "live" presentation modeled on the 54 Sound sessions, and Don's mind lit up again.

Seizing this extraordinary opportunity to present the multi-dimensional reality of Motor City music in several of its infinite guises would pose some difficult production questions: How to get all the 13 selected acts on and off stage within the context of a fast-moving 90-minute show constructed along the lines of the classic Rhythm & Blues Revues of yore? How to get each of these acts to agree to one five-minute selection apiece? How to determine the order of performance? What about the equipment changes? And then there's the recording and filming while all this is happening on stage.

But on the night of the show Don and the Wasmopolitan crew ably surmounted every possible problem through careful pre-production planning, an ace stage crew, top-flight sound and lighting support, and the exquisite cooperation of all the artists and everyone involved in the show. Don acted as Master of Ceremonies and brought each act on and off the big stage with love, respect and perfect taste, then stepped back to play the bass with the house band--Luis Resto on keys, Randy Jacobs on guitar and Terry Thunders at the drums--or appear as an impromptu member of the Detroit Cobras or one of the other ensembles.

For the packed house, inured to the usual one-dimensional pop music concert format, the Don Was Detroit Super Session at the Concert of Colors had to be like attending a whole bunch of different shows all in one night as the stunning array of unsung or forgotten Detroit musical talent took the stage in all its twisted diversity--from the two-generation-rock of the Muldoons to the Latin heat from Lola Morales and the elemental funk of Mick Collins & the Dirtbombs, the folky sounds of the Sisters Lucas, the genius jazz of Faruq Z. Bey & his ensemble, the bristling attack of the Ramrods, the smoother sounds of Louis Resto and Donald Ray Mitchell from Was (Not Was), the fundamental 40-year groove of the original Black Merda band, the contemporary splendor of the Black Bottom Collective, and the brilliant musical tributes paid by the Detroit Cobras (Garnett Mimms' "As Long As I Have You") and by the great Mitch Ryder to our persistent Motown legacy ("What Becomes of the Broken Hearted").

Nothing the same, everything different, each one standing on its own sound and merits--like James Semark said once, "Each one is real / Each real is one." The sounds of Detroit as seen and heard through the open eyes and ears of Don Was: beautifully presented, thrillingly juxtaposed, utterly irresistible, rocking the house one way to the other and riveting the attention of the audience from beginning to end. And now you can see and hear it for yourself--right here!

--London
September 11, 2008

(c)2008 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.