2025 SFJAZZ Gala tickets & info at https://www.sfjazz.org/gala

Terence Blanchard stopped talks about legendary bassist, producer and Blue Note Records President Don Was, and why SFJAZZ is honoring him with a Lifetime Achievement Award on June 12th at the 2025 SFJAZZ Gala.

Born in Detroit in 1952, Don Was 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.

For his work 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. Records that Don has produced have sold close to 100 million albums for a wide array of artists like The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Mayer, Ringo Starr, Wayne Shorter, The B-52s and Charles Lloyd.

As President of the iconic jazz label Blue Note Records, Was signed and produced many of the label’s recent roster of artists including Robert Glasper, Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Dr Lonnie Smith, Gregory Porter and Jason Moran. In 2018 Don Was joined Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir to form the Wolf Brothers and currently tours with his own Pan-Detroit Ensemble, who will perform as part of the 2025 San Francisco Jazz Festival.