Don Was serves as the president of jazz label Blue Note Records in addition to producing albums for the Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, the B-52s and many others. However, he has another first-impulse job description. “If you ask what I do, I’m a bass player,” says the Detroit native, who co-led the funk-rock outfit Was (Not Was) during the ’80s. “It’s only fairly recently that I haven’t been able to get out and play that much. I say yes to just about everything. I’d go play a bar mitzvah next week if someone called.”

Well, maybe not. Was is currently touring with The Last Waltz 40, a group paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of a farewell concert by the Band immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Waltz. The band also includes guitarist/singer Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule, Allman Brothers Band), singer/keyboardist Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers), country maverick Jamey Johnson, keyboardist John Medeski, Dirty Dozen Brass Band drummer Terence Higgins and a horn section using Allen Toussaint’s original charts. The tour grew from shows during New Orleans’ 2016 Jazzfest, and the group plays the Orpheum Theatre on Jan. 28. Johnson won’t make that Boston date and should be replaced by another guest who Was says, “may be someone who was at the original [Last Waltz].” We caught up with Was before the Last Waltz hits town.

You’ve produced records for such legacy artists as the Stones, Dylan and Kris Kristofferson. What was your connection to or perspective on the Band? Twenty years before people were talking about Americana, [the Band] were digging deep of the musical roots of the country and expressing it in a rock ‘n’ roll way. Those songs, man, burn deep. They’re burned into my soul … But the thing that really struck us in New Orleans when we played was that the audience response was much more enthusiastic than our performance served. After three of four songs, I realized, it’s not just us. Everybody’s got these songs in their DNA.”

How’d this particular band come together and how does this show differ from other celebrations paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of “The Last Waltz?” It’s a really unlikely band. It wouldn’t be a logical thing to put Jamey Johnson, Warren Haynes and Michael McDonald in a co-lead vocal situation. As opposed to being a thing where we’re bringing out different people to sing every song, this is more of a band kind of thing… Something happened with the chemistry of this band where the whole became greater than the sum of the parts. We could tell as soon as we started playing. It’s not only gelling, but we were digging it too. To hear Michael McDonald, every time he opens his mouth, it’s like ‘Whoa, man!’ That voice, and he’s got some really great songs to sing… We said ‘Let’s do this again.’”

“The Last Waltz” was known not only for the Band but also for special guests like Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Muddy Waters and Van Morrison. Would you say that this group is trying to be faithful or interpretive to that performance? We take some liberties. It’s a fine line between staying true to the stuff… and also we don’t want to do karaoke. You have to live in the songs. It’s not just reproduction and soundalikes. The note choices, speaking as the bass player in the band, I know what [the Band’s] Rick Danko played, although I was trying to figure out what the correct versions were of “The Weight” the other night and it depends on which show you listen to or which recording. He played it differently all the time and that’s the way you’re supposed to [do it]. You start from Point A, but you go where the song goes and where the band takes it. You’re playing with guys like this and they’re all great listeners and there’s a real good conversation going on onstage.”