An Interview With Jeff Coffin

Brandon: We're creeping up on your 10 year anniversary being with the Flecktones officially (March '07). How would you describe these past 10 years filled with traveling the globe and playing music with these other great musicians?

Jeff: Wow…has it been ten years already? It’s gone by very very quickly. I feel like I have learned a tremendous amount from these guys...it’s been great. Playing music with people love, admire and respect…it doesn’t really get any better than that. We play some pretty wacky stuff and people keep coming out to check it out and it’s encouraging and also refreshing that this type of music can become somewhat “mainstream”. I look forward many more years in the fold.

Brandon: During the hiatus for the Flecktones in 2005, you were able to take the Mu'tet all over the map for the most extended tour you've had with them since taking them on the road. How was that and is it something you're looking forward to doing again?

Jeff: Well, like starting any kind of endeavor, it’s a challenge to get in front of people. Drawing folks in is a difficult thing to do, especially if they know you for one thing and then you present them with something they have not heard before. It’s a familiarity thing I think. I really enjoy taking my own group out but it contains it’s own set of difficulties like only being able to tour in very short time periods during specific times of the year.

People really love it when we go out and give them some music they have not heard before. I write nearly all the music and I think we have a pretty unique thing going on with the Mu’tet. The whole idea is that music continues to “mutate” and that’s where the name “Mu’tet” comes from. I’ll keep doing it because I love it and I think the folks I play with in my group and the music I write need to be heard.

I have actually just started a new recording that features Futureman on acoustic drums, Felix Pastorious on electric bass and Kofi Burbridge on keys and flute. Look for it sometime this year and help pass the word!

Brandon: You also played with Lynyrd Skynyrd that same year. How did that come about?

Jeff: My good friend, saxophonist Jim Horn was playing with them and they had horns out for about a year. I got to play baritone sax with them on one gig in Alabama of all places. It was great! I had a ball. Jim is the most recorded saxophonist in history having played with everyone on the planet and more…he’s a great hang and good friend. He does some really eclectic gigs and sessions that I get to be a part of sometimes when I am home. It’s a lot of fun.

Brandon: Currently what are your favorite Flecktones songs to perform live?

Jeff: I really enjoy all the tunes we play but I am partial to “Kaleidoscope” and “P’Lod in the House” right now. It has lots of elements that stretch the way I hear and play. A lot of the tunes have particular quirks to them that are very challenging. I really enjoy the variety of instruments I get to play as well, from saxes to clarinet, flute and pennywhistle. I like all the colors I get to choose from.

Brandon: Last summer you performed with the Dave Matthews Band a few times, even jumping on to perform some of their new and unreleased material during your guest performance with the band in Atlanta in mid-August. How was it being back on stage with DMB and how much preparation did you have before performing on those new and unreleased songs?

Jeff: Preparation? Haha…zero. Leroi coming into the dressing room 5 minutes before they were gonna play and saying “wanna play?” and me saying “of course”…haha. That’s about how that went down. He would sing or play me parts before they came up and I would get about every other note of the phrase. I caught some of them pretty quickly but it’s a listening lesson for sure. One I think people don’t get enough of…playing on the fly like that, which has its own set of challenges and rewards.

I love the energy of the band and the guys in particular. They are really great people and I think that is what sets them apart in the music world. Not that there aren’t great people out there, but I feel they are very genuine and they care about making music that is a genuine piece of themselves. That quality is too rare in the music world in my opinion.

Brandon: Being an accomplished and world class sax player yourself, how would you describe DMB's wind-man LeRoi Moore and also drummer Carter Beauford, since there is so much interaction between the both of you when you guest with the band?

Jeff: I love love love where Leroi is coming from with the group! It’s like a cross between Wayne Shorter, Stanley Turrentine, Eddies Harris, Maceo Parker, and King Curtis! Can’t go wrong there. Roi has a beautiful soprano sound in particular…very warm and liquid and expressive. That’s the hardest of the saxophones to play and he sounds beautiful on it. It’s great to hear winds in a “rock” band that have interesting parts to play and that have long solos and actually have a place in the band and that are not “down in the mix”.

Carter is captain energy. He is the catalyst of the band I fell. He is the kind of drummer I really love playing with who can turn on a dime and go anywhere at any level with you as a soloist. He is steeped in the traditions of jazz drummers like Elvin Jones, Tony Williams and Billy Cobham, but he brings the funk like Jabbo Starks or Dennis Chambers. He’s a truly unique musician and someone who seems to be genuinely happy to be making music at every moment.

Brandon: What is your favorite Dave Matthews Band album and/or song (if you have one)?

Jeff: Bartender. I really like the rawness of it. I first heard it when they were doing what came to be known as the Lillywhite Sessions (hope I spelled that right!). I was blown away at its depth.