Don Was - Groove In The Face Of Adversity (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Mack Avenue Records has rarely been accused of playing it safe. Yet even by its own adventurous standards, its latest release feels like a bold gamble, and, at times, a head-scratcher. By handing the spotlight to Don Was, the Grammy-winning producer, bassist, and president of Blue Note Records, the label ventures far beyond the jazz lanes it usually travels, into terrain where reggae, funk, and ’70s-style pop production dominate. The result is an album that both defies easy categorization and dares the listener to question what “belongs” on a jazz imprint in 2025.

For those who know Was primarily as a studio mastermind, the shift is intriguing but not entirely surprising. His reputation was cemented decades ago: six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time in 1989 and Producer of the Year in 1994; a BAFTA for Best Original Score (Backbeat); an Emmy for musical direction on CBS’s The Beatles: The Night That Changed America; and a Golden Gate Award for his documentary on Brian Wilson. Few producers have moved as effortlessly between genres, guiding albums by The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, and countless others to collective sales north of 100 million.

TRACKLIST

1 Midnight Marauders
2 Nubian Lady
3 I Ain't Got Nothin' But Time
4 This Is My Country
5 You Asked, I Came
6 Insane



Thanks to the Original customer.