Over the past few years most Jambands.com readers have seen Jeff Coffin in a group setting. The longtime member of Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, has recently devoted himself to the Dave Matthews Band, while also slipping in some shows with his own collective, the Mu’tet (as well as guest appearances with Umphrey’s McGee and others along the way). His latest album however, is something altogether different. It features the saxophone player along with drummer Jeff Sipe. The pair recorded over three days in Brevard, NC, at the Brevard Music Center and the results have just been release on the aptly-titled Duet. In the following conversation he touches on this project, DMB, the Flecktones and what else is on the horizon.
How did you approach this new album? You’ve said that this was sort of a musical conversation that flowed like a stream of consciousness. What was the focus going into this album?
I think the main focus was just to make music together and to try a bunch of different things and decide after the fact what it was going to become—let the music tell us what it wanted to be rather than us trying to dictate the music what we wanted it to be. So when we went in Jeff [Sipe] brought drums, percussion stuff, bells, gongs and I brought everything I had horn wise—whistles, flutes…We basically played for about two and a half days. It was a mixture of parts of tunes, little ideas, melodic ideas…but the primary focus of it was to be improvisational.
So it was basically like an extended jam? Did you collaborate on the written music or was it composed individually?
A bit of both.
It wasn’t mainly based on any mold? The actual idea was to create a piece of pure improvisation?
The idea was to try to have a nice balance leaning more toward the side of improvisation than composition, but there are compositional ideas in there as well. For example, the tune “Should I Stand” is actually the “Pledge of Allegiance” put to music. It’s rhythmically and sympatically, I guess you would say, the “Pledge of Allegiance.” I wanted to have something that I can use also as a teaching tool to talk about music literally as a language and equating sound with speech. I wanted to have something that everyone was familiar with so that they could break that open themselves.
You and Jeff Sipe have a long history of playing together and have formed a close musical bond over the years. Can you talk about how that bond shaped the musical conversation you were having while making this album?
I think there’s a lot of trust there. To me there has to be a lot of trust—there has to be a willingness on all sides to allow you to go to certain depths and emote certain things. We’re sharing a lot of information with each other when we’re playing music. I want to trust the people that I’m playing with that they can carry that information. I think when you have a great friendship between people, like Jeff and I have, there’s a lot of trust that goes into that friendship. It’s about communication and dedication to move on with that relationship.
Were you able to anticipate some of the things that Jeff would do musically, considering your history together?
Yeah, I would say so. But the whole idea…the word improvisation has the root of improvisio, which means “unexpectedness drives.” So rather than having those expectations of knowing what comes next…[we were] not even in that space. We were sort of going into it as a blank slate. Rather than try to anticipate, just leave it as a blank slate and let it happen. Just to be able to be surprised by the unexpected.
So did you edit down the jams or do any overdubs? What was the final result like?
We took everything that we played in the two and a half days and I broke it down into 46 minutes of music. So it’s basically one seamless piece of music. It’s meant to be listened to as one piece, but you can break it up into sections also. We did one percussion overdub that day, but basically everything I took from was from different sections and I just tried to splice it all together—to make it as seamless as possible. In order to do that I had to go through and sort of weed out the stuff I know we weren’t going to use.
And then there’s a whole bunch of possibilities of what we were going to use. So I had to make those decisions based on what I felt was best musically for what was going on. That was sort of the process of getting it done. Then we put in what we call “index points” so you can go to different sections but you can still listen to it as a seamless piece of music.
What are your thoughts on the Flecktones reverting back to the original lineup?
It’s great. The record sounds great and I’m sure it will be interesting for a lot of people to hear those guys playing together again.
So there’s no animosity from either side?
No, why would there be?
Just wondering. The Flecktones are also playing at some of the DMB Caravans. Do you have plans to sit in with them?
Possibly, I wouldn’t imagine it’s a very long set so it all depends on what they want to do. They’re all family to me and when I took the Dave gig, it was understood that they were going to have to do what they needed to do. We’re all still great friends and family and we’ll certainly play together a long time. I know that.
So your time with the Flecktones is not over? Do you have plans to play with them at some point again?
That’s the thing about music, man. I don’t think it’s ever over. The people that you work and collaborate with and have relationships with…all that stuff continues. I’ve spent 14 years playing with those guys and it’s certainly not over by any stretch. There’s no plans [to perform together], in particular, because DMB will be back on the road next year.
When you first came into DMB, what was it like taking on LeRoi Moore’s sax lines? Did you expand on those and bring your own style to the table, or were you careful to respect his original lines?
On the horn lines, I’m trying to be as close to how he envisioned them as I can. Those are the lines. That’s stuff that came up with all of those tunes and became part of the tunes. I always tell people it’s never about replacing anybody, because you can’t replace anybody. For me, I just come in and do what I do.
I know that there are people who miss LeRoi. Everybody misses LeRoi. It’s a different sound and a different texture to the sound. We’re very different players. But I knew LeRoi pretty well and I try to pay homage to him every night with stuff that I play…the way that I play certain things. It’s also important, and I think he would be the person to agree, that you’ve got to play with your own voice. That’s what I try to do every night—whether it’s with the Flecktones, The Mutet or Dave or whatever it is. I’m still trying to retain who I am as a musician.
Do you think that playing LeRoi’s horn lines has changed you as a player?
Yeah, I think so. I think when you get into somebody else’s music that deeply there’s an inherent influence in there that comes out. There are a lot of players that I am influenced by that LeRoi was influenced by, so there’s a lot of common ground there anyhow. But as horn players we sort of understood where the other one was coming from.
I always had a lot of respect for him because he always had his own thing. He was deeply into Wayne Shorter, Stanley Turrentine, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins—all the great cats. I think he tried to roll in those influences. Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley…the list goes on and on. He was deeply into those musicians and the spirit of that music and I feel he tried to bring that out in his own playing too.
So with the newer material are you still trying to stay true to the DMB “sound” or are you more able to bring your own voice to the table?
Well, for the last record we sort of threw a bunch of ideas around. A lot of times I’ll defer to Rashawn [Ross]—he’s been with the group for six or seven years now. So I’m cool with putting in my two cents when I feel it’s necessary. I mean, I definitely look forward to writing with these guys. I think it would be an interesting collaboration. It would change the sound slightly, of course, as the sound on the last record was changed also. But whatever they decide, basically. I don’t know what Dave’s plans are and I’m not even sure that he knows what his plans are. I’m not sure that he’s planned that far ahead yet.
One aspect of your playing that you are known for is the way you play through two saxophones simultaneously. How did you first learn to do that and what inspired the idea?
Well it didn’t work the first time I tried it, but there was a saxophonist named Rahsaan Roland Kirk who pioneered the technique. He would actually play three at a time and would circular breathe while he did it—meaning that he would breathe in through his nose while puffing out through his cheeks—so he could create a continuous breathe like a didgeridoo player does. I’ve always liked that sound and I’ve always been into alternate techniques on the instrument. You know, getting different articulation techniques and with a double horn is part of that technique. When you split tones on the instrument it’s like a harmonizer pedal or an envelope filter or those kinds of things—it changes the sound of the instrument. So that’s one of the things that I’m trying to go for. I’m trying to be rooted, but also change the position of the instrument.
Another interesting project you are working on is the Race Riot Suite with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. Can you tell us a bit about that project?
It has to do with the cultural race riots in the early part of the 20th century. It’s those guys and myself—Peter Apfelbaum, Steven Bernstein, Marc Sutherland on sax and Matt Leland playing trombone. It’s really interesting; it’s got the shape of Charles Mingus and the shape of Radiohead at the same time. The CD comes out in late August. Info about all of my projects is available at jeffcoffin.com, which just had a complete revamp.
