At Boch Center’s eclectic WasFest, whatever happens, happens

“One of the things I’ve learned touring with Bob over the last six years is that the thing audiences respond to most is knowing they’re seeing a one-of-a-kind show,” said Was during a recent phone call. “You never play the same setlist twice, and they love it when you try things. Even when you make a mistake they love it, because they know it’s spontaneous.”

Was, a familiar figure with his dark glasses, wide-brimmed hats, and penumbra of kinky black hair, is an accomplished bassist and a former member of the quirky ‘80s act Was (Not Was) who has produced albums by a who’s who of the music world — Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and the Rolling Stones. A little over a decade ago, he was named president of Blue Note Records, the iconic jazz label, which he has rescued from the brink of oblivion.

On Friday at the Shubert Theatre, Glasper will revisit his landmark trio of albums, volumes one through three of “Black Radio.” Opening is Meshell Ndegeocello, who will perform her 1993 debut “Plantation Lullabies” in full. Across the street at the Wang, Dark Star will re-create the Dead’s complete show from Nov. 14, 1978, at the old Music Hall.

Josiah Spaulding, president of the Boch Center, was a key voice in the plans for the festival, Was said: “At every turn, if we made a decision to play it a little safer, he encouraged adventure.”

Saturday’s bill features some of the jazz world’s brightest contemporary lights. The pianist Gerald Clayton will lead a quintet featuring trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, both accomplished bandleaders in their own right. The group will perform the late Wayne Shorter’s 1964 gem “Speak No Evil.”

They will be followed onstage by Blue Note guitarist and bandleader Julian Lage with special guest John Medeski, who are set to present Grant Green’s 1964 album “Street of Dreams.”

“There are a couple of new generations of musicians who are kind of changing the face of what you’d call jazz, Glasper being a great example,” said Was, who grew up in Detroit listening to jazz, blues, and hard rock.

“ ‘Black Radio 1′ was done the first year I was at Blue Note. You go to a student concert now, any high school with a jazz program, and they go, ‘Right now, we’d like to do a Robert Glasper song called “Afro Blue.” ‘ He brought a whole vocabulary, mixing hip-hop with jazz, in a way that no one else had.”

For the weekend’s final show at the Shubert on Sunday, Was tapped the Boston-bred band Lettuce to re-create Aretha Franklin’s “Live at Fillmore West” (1971). He caught them for the first time a year ago at the Fillmore and was instantly sold.

“That was one of the most fun shows I’ve been to in the last couple of decades,” he said.

Now a nationally touring act, the members of Lettuce are scattered across the country, with three of them in Denver, one in Los Angeles, and one in New Orleans. The sixth, saxophonist Ryan Zoidis, lives in Maine.

“He’s like the mayor of music in Portland,” joked drummer Adam Deitch.

The original members of the band met in the early 1990s while studying at Berklee and honing their chops at Wally’s Cafe on Massachusetts Avenue.

“That was our training ground,” Deitch recalled, on the phone from his home in Denver. “We all spent four or five years in that little tiny club, breathing in smoke back when people could still smoke in there. There were people there we are indebted to forever, people who were teaching us young kids how to play this music and kicking our butts to prepare us for the world.”

The whole band loves Aretha, Deitch said, but it’s guitarist Adam Smirnoff who is most enamored with the “Fillmore West” album.

“He knows it down pat. He’s acting as the musical director of this situation. He knows every nook and cranny.” Deitch calls himself a “giant” fan of Bernard Purdie, the celebrated drummer who played with Aretha on that Fillmore appearance.

“He’s like a god to me,” he said. “All the things he does on that record cemented his godlike status in soul music.”

Special guest Judith Hill, once a protegé of Prince, will handle the daunting task of singing Aretha’s vocals.

“She is the absolute truth,” said Deitch. “She’s gonna do it justice.”

Opening the Sunday show will be the veteran British reggae band Steel Pulse, who will perform their definitive 1982 album “True Democracy” in its entirety. The two bands are touring together this summer, but the WasFest stop is the only one that will feature the album tributes.

The drummer on that impeccable album, the late Steve “Grizzly” Nisbett, “had a huge influence on me,” said Deitch. “He was playing basically funk music with all the ghost notes, the funk notes I like — that Purdie does — but bringing it to a reggae place. I can’t tell you how many 12-hour van rides that album got us through. We’re excited to hit it with them.”

Was, who expects to be on hand to introduce the musicians through the weekend, believes that unique live music events such as WasFest are a welcome antidote to the current state of the concert world, with its heavy reliance on sequencers and Pro Tools.

“The very idea of playing improvisational music — the first rule is, whatever you did last night, don’t do it again,” he said.

“It’s completely human, driven by human feeling, human emotion. The goal of musicians is to make people feel something. The worst thing you can do is make them feel cold. Or do something acrobatic — ‘Look at how many notes I can cram into a bar.’ That’s a nice stunt, but it’s not rooted in feeling.

“People deserve more credit than they’re given,” he concluded with a laugh. “Given the opportunity, they’ll choose music that’s good, music that’s communicative.”

WASFEST

Dark Star Orchestra, Wang Theatre, June 23 at 7:30 p.m.; Robert Glasper and Meshell Ndegeocello, Shubert Theatre, June 23 at 8 p.m.; Julian Lage Quartet and Gerald Clayton Quintet, Shubert Theatre, June 24 at 8 p.m.; Lettuce and Steel Pulse, Shubert Theatre, June 25 at 8 p.m. $24-$79. www.bochcenter.org