Photo by Bryan Niven
Jeff Coffin is arguably the busiest man in music, and the last year or so has only helped to prove it. In addition to his main gig as The Flecktones’ saxophonist since 1997, he’s put out three solo albums with his ever-evolving rotation of musicians, the Mu’tet, since 2001. The group’s latest release never saw the light of live performance—until now. Mutopia, released in July 2008, features fellow Flecktone, Futureman on acoustic drums (Jeff Sipe will play drums live), Felix Pastorius on electric bass, and Derek Trucks’ current keyboardist Kofi Burbridge on flute and keys as well as a slew of guest collaborations including Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, DJ Black Cat Sylvester and more. Mutopia —placed on the back-burner when Coffin got a call from the Dave Matthews Band to fill in for the late LeRoi Moore in July 2008—will finally get some live exposure with four Mu’tet dates scheduled this October, and plans for more before the end of this year. As if that’s not enough, Coffin appeared on Umphrey’s McGee’s last two studio efforts: 2007’s The Bottom Half and 2008’s Mantis, and has performed live with the group on several occasions. He also played with My Morning Jacket during a 2008 Bonnaroo set and at its New Year’s Eve show at Madison Square Garden last year.
Not 12 hours after DMB had begun the final leg of its extensive international summer tour on September 19th, the chameleon-like Coffin spent a sunny nearly-autumn morning on the PA side of the Ben Franklin Bridge. Between sets in Camden, NJ, the talented saxophonist riffed about his now year-old Mutopia, the echelon of musicians he’s assembled to support him on the upcoming mini-tour and a lot more. To put it simply, the guy had a lot to say.
You have four Mu’tet dates coming up in October. You said you’ve been trying to get this group of musicians (Jeff Sipe, Kofi Burbridge, Felix Pastorius) out for nearly four years.
This particular configuration, yes.
What is your relationship like with these players?
I’ve known Sipe for a long time from festivals and stuff we did with the Flecktones, and I knew about Aquarium Rescue Unit from when we first moved to Atlanta. I remember the first time I heard those guys, I literally pulled off the road, I was like, “_What_ is going on?” I had just moved to Nashville, so this was early ‘90s, and truly man, I was completely blown away. So when Sipe and I got a chance to meet, and eventually play together also, he was such a powerful musician, such a powerful, spirited musician. He was kind of the reason for enlarging the circle of players that I played with, he was kind of the impetus for that. I knew that I wanted to play with him so I made a real conscious decision to start using guys who were outside of Nashville, and to try to go and sit in with them also, and start to move that outward. So I’ve been playing with Jeff for years, he played on my Bloom record and he and I are in the middle of a duet project that’s being mixed right now.
As for Felix, I needed a bass player for a Mu’tet tour, and a couple of the guys that I normally used weren’t available, so I talked to Victor Wooten, and he said, “Call Felix.” I had met Felix a couple of times, but we had never played together, he was 19 at the time. So I called him up and asked if he was interested and available, and he said absolutely. So we’ve been playing together now like eight years. It was interesting, I remember as the gig got a little closer, I started to think, “Wow, I hope he can play this stuff,” because I never heard him play. But if Vic was confident in him, I’m confident in him. But every now and again there’d be this little tinge of concern, just hoping that it was all going to sort of work. I had this dream the night before Felix got there that I was sitting out somewhere under this big tree, and he came up and started talking about stuff, and for whatever reason the next morning, I thought, “Oh, this is going to be cool.” So Felix and I have been working on and off for a number of years, and he’s on Mutopia, he really sounds beautiful. He’s Jaco’s [Pastorius] son. A lot of people think he looks a lot like Jaco, the way he plays also, the gestures and whatnot. But he’s really got his own thing entirely. He sounds beautiful.
As far as Kofi, we’ve known each other forever. I met him at his Zambiland thing that Jeff Sipe used to put together, called the Zambiland Orchestra. It was kind of this loose conglomeration of about 80 people on stage at a time, and it was insane. It was a big fundraiser for Second Harvest Food Bank down in Atlanta and it was crazy. I was like, “_Wow_ this is great.” I think it may have been the first place that Sipe and I played together. He invited me down, and all of these guys came in from all over the place, and they were all connected with Jeff. And it was really incredible to meet these guys and play with them. So that’s kind of how I initially met them, and Jeff and I really lock in well together, so this configuration of players I tried to get together just about four years ago. Sipe couldn’t make [the recording sessions] at the last minute, so I let Futureman play and that’s when the gestation for Mutopia came about too—I was like, “I really gotta record this group.” Kofi is a genius as far as I’m concerned, he’s this beautiful combination of learned and street. The stuff he brings to the table is just phenomenal, how quickly he catches on to things. He’s studied classical flute since he was a child and the piano stuff—to hear his harmonic sense when he plays piano—dear God, it’s ridiculous. So I’m really excited about everybody playing together.
It’s only a four date schedule now, with plans for more. I was going to ask if you wish you had more than just four dates to play?
Well, yes and no because there’s some other Dave stuff coming up, we have this cruise thing at the end of October. We don’t get home [from the summer tour] until October 5th. So then to get home and go right back out, I just can’t do that. So it only leaves that weekend to do anything. From the beginning of November, we’re going to be doing a lot of clinic stuff, so it’s kind of a good schedule. But we figure that when the beginning of the year rolls around and everyone is available, which I think they will be, that we’ll be able to do some stuff during the year also. That’s one of the things that I’m looking forward to, even though the whole concept of the Mu’tet is that it’s kind of an ever-evolving facet of musicians, I still feel a desire to still work with some cats for a while because it’s all original music. I’m teaching the music to everybody each time. But because everybody has played my music now, there will be a familiarity that’s there with everybody, and it will be different, which will be interesting. To me, that essential change—that’s always going to be there, even if it’s rotating somebody out or bringing someone extra in.
Do you write all of the parts on Mutopia?
No. The concept that I know more about the drums than Jeff Sipe, or Kofi, or Felix, or whoever I’m playing with, I don’t know more than they do about their instruments. Every now and then there will be something based off an idea, so there might be a guideline to go from. On a song called “Turiya” there is a bass ostinato that is kind of impetus for the tune. But on a tune like “The Mad Hatter Rides Again” or some kind of New Orleans-based tune, usually I let everyone just figure it out for themselves because I don’t want to put any barriers up. That’s something I learned with the Flecktones: you can have an idea that’s not going to go away, but if you allow everybody else to come up with some ideas very organically also, there will be some nice surprises along the way. And it’s not like you won’t retain your ideas, that you can’t try it, but allowing everyone to have that process of discovering the music—that is the important thing.
You’ve been working on the material for Mutopia for a while and you finally recorded and released the record last year. But because you got a call of duty from DMB, you weren’t able to support the Mu’tet release with live performances. What is it like to revisit that material after a year away from it? Has your approach changed?
Well we’ve been playing that music for a while. There’s some new stuff that I’ve written obviously since then. When I got a called to do the Dave gig, it was the beginning of July. Two weeks later, that record Mutopia came out and it was about the furthest thing from my mind at that point. I was excited to have it out, but I was kind of like, “Okay, well here we go. It’s going to be a couple of months before I can tour this.” But I had intentions of touring in the fall and obviously, tragically, Roi [LeRoi Moore] passed, so I’ve been just trying to roll with it and just allow the process to open up when it’s supposed to open up.
So to revisit the music, I’m kind of always revisiting it. Even with the Flecktones’ schedule, it’d be months before I have a chance to go back in and play it. It’s very interesting to see how the music progresses, but also the next stuff that comes out. Conceptually, things have started to change also over the last few years musically, as they have to. It can never stay the same, and even though there will be tunes that I have done all along, they will still transform and transfigure as that happens. But there are certain tunes that I really love, and certain tunes that I’ll pull out with certain groups that I want to revisit. So I think it will be different. I’m excited about it, for sure. I’m excited to hear how everybody will play this music together. But it’s like any certain situation, you change members and it changes the sound of the group, it changes the chemistry and the feel and the concept of all of this. So it’s exciting, it’s really exciting.
There are a lot of guests on Mutopia. Of all of the collaborations, which one surprised you the most or lead to the most unexpected results?
That’s a great question. Well I think one of the moments on the record that I’m really proud of is Victor and Felix trading on “Al’s Greens.” That tune was actually based off of a Joe Henderson tune. It’s a descending progression of dominant chords, kind of a cool motion for a song. I thought, if I slow it down, I’d kind of like to have a different melody over it. And I’d like to slow it way down, almost to like The Roots tempo. So in writing that tune, I wanted to have a really fun progression of changes to blow over, but have the melody be really interesting and have it sort of wide open that you can do a lot with.
So when I asked Vic to be on that tune, we left the solo section open. But to me it kind of connected three generations from Jaco to Vic to Felix in this kind of particular way and I thought it was really interesting to hear them to play together and I MPGed it. And we went in and tweaked it a little bit, and said, “Let’s get this little section again, blah blah blah.” But the general shape of everything from the beginning is right there, and to hear them feeding off of each other is really beautiful, so that’s a really special moment for me on the record.
There’s a piano player that I play with a lot from Nashville, nammed Chris Walters. He’s a pretty stunning musician and there’s always stuff that he’s done on my records that almost literally shocked me, because I always think, “How did you hear that?” So that’s kind of a real interesting kind of thing too. When we did “Sweet Magnolias,” that tune was a first take and I knew that if we didn’t get it on the first take that we weren’t going to get it. So I’m really glad that we got to capture that because it came from a particularly personal place for me, and I’m glad we got it. That was a very nice thing to have on there.
Can you elaborate on the inspiration for “Sweet Magnolias”?
I’d rather not. It came from a kind of uniquely personal place, and I knew that if we got it, it was going to have that kind of heightened sense to it, and we got it. I think it’s a beautiful version and it’s one of those tunes that just came out, and those tunes are kind of rare, but it came out just as quickly as I could write it. There have been a few tunes that are that way for me, and those tunes seem to stand the test of time for me also.
A lot of songs on Mutopia are nods or dedications to musicians that have influenced your personal musical development. “One In, One Out,” is for Lee Morgan, “Turiya” is dedicated to Alice Coltrane, “Move Your Rug” is dedicated to Otha Turner. What elements of these songs reflect the artists that you dedicated them to, and how do you incorporate their influence when you’re performing?
“One In, One Out”: I was listening to some of Lee Morgan’s boogaloo stuff, and I just love that group. I’ve always been really into music that moves me, like literally moves me, and emotionally, obviously, as well. One of the things that I feel like a lot of music has lost is that element of dance. I don’t mean in the typical style. Even with Ornette Coleman, you can still dance to Ornette, even though it’s free. What I’m talking about is that movement, that motion within the music. I think that for me in a lot of ways, especially in improvised music, I get really bored at some points—I want there to be that swirl. The idea that we’re supposed to be communicating seems to have gotten lost somewhere. You’re not supposed to be a group huddled around in a circle so that nobody else can understand what you’re talking about. You’re supposed to be a community that flows outward rather than inward.
So, in a lot of stuff I write, I try to keep that in mind. Where is it going? What kind of movement and what kind of motion does it have? I wanted to write a modern-day boogaloo tune, so it’s really inspired about that kind of Lee Morgan stuff. Then I have a DJ in Nashville, Black Cat Sylvester, who Futureman has been working a lot with as well, and I found out about him from some buddies of mine. I had had DJ Logic on Bloom, but I didn’t want to totally revisit having a DJ on the whole thing, but I do like to have these sort of ties that connect the records together. So when I had him come in, I asked him for some ambient stuff and some rhythmic stuff, too and I went in and edited stuff around. It’s kind of a bridge with the old and the more contemporary. It’s kind of a weird form also: it’s a 13-bar, a 12-bar, then a 13-bar, so it’s A-B-A, which is a little strange also. But it’s a really fun thing to play, when it really locks in it feels really, really good.
As far as “Turiya,” I got really into Alice Coltrane’s music for the last number of years—I just think she’s brilliant. All of the Indian influence that’s in there as well. She was a brilliant, brilliant musician, whether it was a harp, piano, her vocal arranging, I find a real kinship in her music. So when I wrote this tune, this is one of the tunes that this bass line came out of also. I ended up writing this tune over the top, and it felt almost like an improvisation, and it’s one of the tunes that’s more of an acoustic nature on the record all the way through, and that kind of feels like where my next record’s going to go, it’s going to be more of an acoustic thing.
But you know, I really wanted her to play harp on that tune, but she passed before that was possible, and that was a big loss for me. I knew she was in the middle of a record, and I was just knocked over by it. That was a big loss for the community, I think. And Turiya was her Hindu name. She studied Hinduism for a long time. I actually got to see her with Ravi, her son, at UCLA. I was out recording a trio called Mondo Trio. After the second night of recording, I saw in the paper that she was playing, and Vinnie [Colaiuta] came out also and Jeff was on drums, it was just ridiculous man. It was a big fundraiser for the John Coltrane Scholarship Foundation. So it was really inspiring to get to hear her live.
For “Move Your Rug,” the original version I did—there’s a little snippet on Bloom that starts the record, that kind of goes into this brass band kind of thing. I felt it was too early to record that tune fully, and I had this other tune that I wanted to put on there, I just didn’t want to laden it down with too much of one particular style of music. When I did that, Otha Turner had recently passed, and I had bought one of his fifes and I had met him a few different times. He was 93 when he passed, and he was a brilliant, brilliant cat. And that’s a whole other discussion about that kind of music, too. Someone sort of suggested that I lay that fife over the top of it.
The full version that’s on Mutopia I wanted it to be a real kind of different version so we recorded it all in the same room, with a drummer from New Orleans, this guy Doug Belote, who sort of has that real sound of the feet, that whole up kind of dance thing. It starts off with this weird intro that’s in 13, and when we were doing it, Doug was like, “this is the second line in 13, I can’t believe it.” It almost has this awkward kind of thing going, but it feels so right, like a pirate dancing with one leg or something. It’s not only an homage to Otha, but also to all the music from New Orleans and that has come up the Mississippi, and it’s got that joy to it and motion to it, that joyful spirit that I love so much.
When we did it, there was a sousaphone player named Joe Murphy that played all that stuff also. The idea was for us to all play together in the middle of it, and the trumpet player couldn’t make the sessions, so I had him overdub, so there was trombone and tuba and just a whole bunch of us, there’s piano and organ on it. So when I was mixing it—Rod was the last one on it, the trumpet player Rod McGaha—felt kind of cluttered to me. So I thought well if I dropped all of the horns except for Rod out of it, then add starting at the bridge and everyone else at the last A, that’s the version that’s on there. I sort of distilled it down from what it was, which was a little bit of a cluster-fuck, into this other thing. And a lot of the success comes from the mix from that tune on the whole record.
My very good friend Richard Aspinwall mixed the whole thing and did a really incredible job. To separate all of the voices and to make them sound like you can listen to them with transparency of the music, that’s a really important thing. So that’s where a lot of it came from. The music of New Orleans has really changed my life and the inspiration of it. It’s music for all occasions, ceremonial music, I guess you would say. And that’s one of the things about listening to African music that has moved me so much over the last 20 plus years also, that there is music for each ceremony for the hierarchy of life.
And it moves me man, it’s incredible, I missed New Orleans before I left in February. It was kind of like, “What is this feeling that I’m having for this city?” And there’s every plan to spend more time there. I was out four or five nights a week sitting-in, every week I was there, I just felt embraced by the community. I fell in love with the musicians, and the people and the food and the struggle. But there’s a real community of people that are working down there and developing ideas, and community and kinship, and I have a lot of great friends down there. My roommate for two years was a saxophone player who got displaced by Katrina, and he’s teaching now at NOCCA, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, which is a high school program. He’s teaching saxophone there now and I told him the other day, “Those guys are so lucky to have you there,” and he’s brilliant, he’s like an encycolopedia. He’s going to bring to them a whole world of knowledge. And I was already deeply into the music by the time I met him, so he turned me onto a lot of stuff, and visa-versa, I turned him onto a whole lot of world music stuff. So that to me is one of the beautiful things, that musicians can really open each other up to different styles and different concepts in music.
I was playing a tune for a buddy of mine last night by Bert Wilson. Bert is probably one of the greatest saxophone players on the planet, and he’s been in a wheelchair for the past 66 years from polio. Basically, he really can’t leave Olympia. His body is a mess but he plays at a level—I don’t think there’s been anyone who has spent more hours on the saxophone than this guy. He literally lives to play. He keeps his lungs strong, it saved his life when he was young, he started playing clarinet. With polio, most people die from pneumonia, but he was able to keep his lungs strong. It’s a trip, this is a guy that Relix should interview. Bert was one of Lenny Pickett’s instructors, from SNL—the sax player—with that crazy seven-octave range. Lenny talks about him a lot.
Bert was playing stuff and it was freaking my buddy out last night, we were just laughing. To have that kind of life experience is remarkable. He’s an incredible composer as well. We were listening to this one tune last night, and he starts talking about the tune, and about the form, and starts explaining the concept behind the harmonic motion of the tune. Just brilliant, brilliant. He’s going to be 70 this upcoming October. I can’t say enough about him. I’ve built a real kinship with his music, and I can’t complain about anything, seeing what that cat has been through, it’s truly unbelievable. It’ll blow your mind. Anybody thinks that they have it bad, forget about it. So I don’t complain about stuff, except for reeds every now and then [laughs].
But the couple of guys I know that have overcome such adversity; this drummer friend of mine, his back is 66 percent off-center, and he is a bad, bad, bad dude. He played on my first two records, Tom Giampietro, incredible musician. You would look at this guy and would think there is no way he can play. He’s gone through about 11 operations on his head, one leg is shorter than the other, never mind being completely mainstream, but being a musician of that caliber—unbelievable. It’s inspiring on every level. He’s one of those guys who continues to challenge himself on every level. Whether it’s chess, he learned how to swim a couple of years ago, and said, “I’ve always wanted to learn how to swim.” So he throws himself literally and figuratively in the deep end. I don’t think I’m that brave, so those people are definitely inspiring to me.
Let’s talk about The Flecktones Holiday Record, Jingle All The Way. You guys played some of that stuff last year?
We played a bunch of it. I’ll be back out with them December of this year to play some of that stuff. Howard Levy will be joining them in November, and I’ll be back in December. That record was number one for six weeks on the jazz charts, it’s pretty wild. The only other number one record the group had was Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (1991) for one week. It’s been really exciting for me, for the last two records I’ve played on to be number one records, and in such different spectrums also. It’s been really nice, really fun, to be apart of both of those things. The Flecktones record, that’s a really fun record, Jingle All the Way, we’re going to have all the Tuvans out there with us again, the throat singers. It’s going to be great, man. Alash Ensemble, it’s the craziest stuff. They’re on the record.
As you mentioned, original Flecktone Howard Levy is playing some dates in November. How did that come about?
Well the band’s been together for about 20 years, and they knew that my schedule was going to go through the fall, so I think they decided to kind of keep it different in some ways. So not knowing whether or not my November schedule was going to be free, we decided it’d be a great way to celebrate the 20th year. It’s interesting, it’s allowing everything to happen the way it’s supposed to naturally happen, not to do nothing, but not to force the square peg into the round hole.
Everything has worked out really perfectly, we’re doing Saturday Night Live with Dave on November 21. Had I agreed to do November with the Flecktones, then it would have interfered with the tour. So again, it worked out perfectly. Even last year, the Flecktones were only touring in October and November. There were two dates, August 5th and 6th the Flecktones had, but we had two days off from Dave, the 4th and 5th, I missed the 6th and was back with Dave on the 7th. So it’s been minimally invasive in any other way. It’s really worked out, and I feel really fortunate that it has. And I just have to believe that it’s been the right thing all along, that the way it’s worked out has been very organic and very natural, so that’s been a good thing.
You’ve said, regarding The Flecktones, that when you go your separate ways and do your own projects, all it does is make The Flecktones a better band. Now that you’ve been playing for DMB for over a year, what, musically, do you feel you can take from the experience playing with DMB and bring to the Mu’tet or The Flecktones when you regroup?
I think it’s the influence of all those other musicians, of the music, of the melodicism of Dave’s vocals, the inflection of working with a vocalist again and having to learn other music. I think that the rhythms and the ideas, they all kind of compound onto one another. There will be a lot of that, a lot of experience of hearing different styles of music, meeting different musicians from different places. I think it’s the same as Bela going out with the African musicians. The things that get talked about, the music that gets listened to, the growth that occurs all the way through, I think that all of those things get brought in and stirred up in the pot.
I think listening skills are the most important thing that can be worked on. I think as those continue to develop, listening to yourself as a musician is as important if not more so than listening to everything else. I don’t mean from a selfish standpoint. Where are you sitting in the strata of things? Where is your voice? Is it too dominant, or not dominant enough? Is there a balance of things? What’s the role? My role with Dave is different than my role with Bela, and they’re both supportive roles, but they’re a different kinds of supportive role. The challenge is still a challenge, it’s no different in that respect, but the things I’m challenged by are different. But I still love the challenge. So those are the things I can bring in also. I feel like I’ve grown as a musician, that I continue to grow as a musician. I’m looking forward to bringing those influences into my composition as well, not just playing and not just being on the road with other musicians, but also in the compositional and arranging aspects as well.
What have you found that DMB offers that the Flecktones don’t, or visa-versa?
They both feed different parts of my head. With Dave, I solo more naturally with the band. The way that I physically play, the way that I emotionally play, probably is more in line with how I get to play with Dave than when I play with Bela. When I play with Bela, I have to play a little bit differently because of the instrumentation, because of the stage volume, and because of the delicacy with having to line up with what Bela is doing. It’s just a different thing. I play more quietly with Bela most of the time. There’s more playing with the Flecktones; parts that are being doubled, parts that are independent of one another. Because there are only four of us, I’m a part of the rhythm section as well as part of the harmony and the things I’m playing. So it’s more of a challenge in those respects.
But I’m the kind of person that if I’m only playing one style of music, I’ll see a need to drift in other things and I’ve always been that way. So even on the road with the Flecktones, I’ll be working on different stuff. I look forward to getting together with the guys and doing Mu’tet stuff. When I’m on the road with Dave, Tim [Reynolds] and I get together and play Brazilian Shiro music, it’s really fun. We play acoustic guitar and flute, and we screw it up just as much as we play it right. We have a couple of books that we work out of, and it’s really fun. It’s a real challenge for the both of us to play the music in a way that sounds good to us. Again, those influences that I bring in and roll into different situations as well.
You played Bonnaroo 2008 and this past New Year’s Eve with My Morning Jacket at Madison Square Garden. You also appear on Umphrey’s McGee’s latest record Mantis and have sat in with them a few times [Editor’s note: And will do so again on New Year’s Eve]. When did you first cross paths with these groups?
I remember My Morning Jacket, it’s an interesting story [laughs]. The guy who was playing saxophone with them went to high school with them. He’s a music therapist, went to Berklee the same time as Rashawn [Ross]. His name is Brian Schreck, and he’s now with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and he’s like a Patch Adams character. He’s a brilliant, brilliant guy.
So he knew Abby, Bela’s wife. Brian called her and said, “I’m going to put a horn section together for this Bonnaroo thing, do you know guys in Nashville?” She said, “Oh, well call Jeff!” So I said that I would absolutely do it and I put a horn section together in town. We did this gig which was really fun. Brian and I really hit it off and the trombone player was also playing with Carl, the guitar player, so Brian and I kept in touch and he’s come out to the gigs. So I met them through Abby, through Brian, through this high school connection, so it’s really a trip.
The first time I met Umphrey’s McGee was on Jam Cruise, and they were saying that they were doing a New Year’s thing and invited me to do a horn section thing. I think it was Vince [Iwinski] that ended up getting me a couple of tracks off of Bottom Half. He said, “I haven’t told the guys, but why don’t you see what you can come up with for horns on these couple of tunes.” It was “Intentions Clear” and “Bottom Half.” So he said, “Come up with some stuff and send it to me when you’re done.” I worked really hard on this stuff—one came really easily, a reggae one; I think it was “Intentions Clear.” It took me a couple of weeks because I kept going back and listening. I didn’t want to do the same kind of stock shit to it. But it was really fun to work on that stuff. Vince said that when he played it for them, he wasn’t sure if they would dig it or not and when he did, they totally wigged out. I did a lot of woodwind stuff on it, not just saxophone. We have such a good time together. I think the world of those guys, and I think what they’re doing is really brilliant. They’re very serious musicians, but it’s a lot of fun too, a lot of flavor in what they do.
You play with a very diverse collection of different groups. It seems like whenever a band needs a horn player, they think of you first. What do you think makes you the “go-to” horn guy for all of these groups?
Part of it is having been out there for so long. I love playing, and I probably sit-in too much, but I love it. If there is an opportunity for me to play, I’m probably going to take it. Music still feels to me the way that it’s always felt since I was a kid, it moves me in this particular way. The music that I go and I hear and that I get to be involved with, I really enjoy it, whether it’s going up with Widespread Panic, or the Flecktones or Dave, whoever. Being called for other kinds of gigs, studio stuff, I try to serve the music in a way that I’m asking the music what it wants from me. I try to bring a fresh approach to the parts and to what I’m bringing in.
Part of my background is playing the blues circuit in Texas also, and that was a huge education. Not just playing with the musicians, but playing with the vocalists. Being able to read the visual cues and being able to really listen. I love a lot of different styles of music, I’ve played a lot of different styles of music, I’ve listened to a lot of different styles of music and I write in a lot of different styles of music and I think that enables me to be a bit more chameleon-like, and that’s been the way I’ve liked it.
I could’ve spent all of my time playing bebop but I wasn’t that interested in learning a bunch of standards. I think they’re great tunes, don’t get me wrong. When you hear guys like Johnny Griffin, Freddy Hubbard, Miles, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins. Wayne Shorter is a perfect example and Joe Henderson, they’re all composers also, guys like Charles Mingus. I didn’t grow up with the music, it’s not even something of my generation. I want to be influenced by stuff I listen to now. I have very little patience for shitty music. I just know stuff that just isn’t very good, not very thoughtful, that lacks passion, that is insincere—I have no time for it. Zero. I try to stay involved with the stuff that moves me, the stuff that I want to be involved with that influences me musically and emotionally. So that’s where I’m coming from and that’s allowed me to delve into a lot of different areas of music, musically and improvisationally. So again, I’m just trying to serve the music by knowing a lot of different style of music.
When you were to guest with DMB in the past, the “Sojurn of Arjuna” interpolation on #41 was the Jeff Coffin thing, people would freak out. Now that you’ve been playing with them every night, it’s become a staple. It’s kind of your stamp on that song.
That’s a Flecktone tune, one of Vic’s tunes. Its a little bridge into something, I think it’s kind of a recognition of Flecktones influence and us having played with them. It’s always a lot of fun. LeRoi [Moore] was always very welcoming and very inviting onstage and personally. I’ve always had a really great report with him. That tune always reminds me of him, they all remind me of him, but that one in particular because we played that tune a lot together. It’s a good vehicle for me and Carter to communicate also, he and I lock in really well. The challenge is to make it different. It’s like Tim and I on that tune, “Crush” when we banter back and forth and try to squeeze the last remaining bit of toothpaste out of the tube, and sometimes it goes all over the place which is great, I love it. So it’s become a vehicle, I love it.
I love playing that melody with Rashawn, he’s such a great musician. He’s really wide-open, he’s teaching me a lot of stuff. I think it’s reciprocal and that we learn from each other. He really saved my ass last summer, I only knew a couple of [DMB] tunes. I got called on July 1st and was playing with them on July 2nd. But we were sketching out charts. He’s been a great teacher, and he has a photographic memory for music, it’s crazy dude, like savant kind of stuff. He’ll know all of the harmony parts, the bass lines, the drum fills, the horn parts and the lyrics. He’s the go-to guy. So it’s been really great to get his virtuosity in all those different areas. He had to step out of the shadow, and I think it’s been a good experience for him. He’s an incredible singer and has a beautiful, beautiful voice. I’ve really seen him expand in this really lovely way. It’s been a great thing to recognize and to realize. There’s just a lot of joy onstage, I hope it translates to the front.
I think last night was a really nice show also—a really nice even flow. Everyone was playing great. To be a part of that is a special thing to me. With Rashawn there’s really nothing that we can’t play technically or harmonically. And it keeps me on my toes and keeps me challenged to think of new parts and to figure out what the hell he’s playing, because he comes up with great parts. It was good, it was an interesting collaboration in the studio as also.
I’m enjoying watching you and Rashawn turn the horn section into your own thing.
Yeah, that’s the natural inclination of it, the natural metamorphosis of it.
