Jeff Coffin & the Mu'tet Live!

Saxophonist Jeff Coffin and his "Mu’tet", truly defy musical categories, and obliterate musical boundaries with their take-home-with-you compositions, their mind-bending solos and their swirling, danceable odd rhythms and exotic world music influences. Their latest effort is a new "Jeff Coffin & the Mu'tet Live! ", a double CD described as "over the top funky and burning with energy and killer tunes." Coffin & the Mu'tet throw down and bring out the music lover in everyone. The album was released on the Ear Up Records label, and recorded live at SPACE (Chicago/Evanston, IL) and at MOMO'S (Austin, TX) in 2010/2011.

The Mu’tet is led by 3-time Grammy winning saxophonist & composer Jeff Coffin. On tour with Dave Matthews Band since July, 2008 and with Bela Fleck & the Flecktones since 1997, Coffin strives to expand himself, his band mates and listeners with music flavored by his wide musical interests. Drawing from African, New Orleans, Indian, funk, jazz, folk, Gypsy, rock, fusion, Brazilian and other styles of music, Coffin sends shockwaves down people’s spines with his fierce soloing and inspiring compositions. A passionate and curious player, Coffin is known to use guitar effects on his sax as well as sometimes playing two, count ‘em…two, saxes at the same time!

On drums is the legendary Jeff “Apt. Q-258” Sipe. Jeff & Jeff have been playing together for many years and Sipe recorded on the Mu’tet cd BLOOM as well as the ‘DUET’ project with Coffin (Compass Records). He is renowned for his mind bending drumming with the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Trey Anastasio, Susan Tedeschi, Greg Osby, Phil Lesh, Project Z, Jonas Hellborg & Shawn Lane, Leftover Salmon, Alex Machacek, The Jimmy Herring Project, and many, many others. When Jeff Sipe unleashes his whirlwind of rhythms and grooves they have to be seen and, especially, heard to be believed.

When not touring with legendary guitarist, Derek Trucks, Kofi Burbridge is on keyboards and flute - bringing his not-so-secret Weapons of Mass deFunkstruction to the Mu’tet. You better watch your back. Kofi is one of the most gifted improvisers and composers on the music scene…Period! Kofi is featured on the latest Mu’tet release MUTOPIA and recently recorded with the legendary Herbie Hancock!

Felix Pastorius, son of bass great Jaco Pastorius, roots the Mu’tet on electric bass. He has been playing with the group since 2002 and is featured on MUTOPIA. Felix has also been touring recently with legendary jazz drummer Cindy Blackman while living and playing in NYC. At 6’ 6” tall, Felix is a gifted composer and a monster bassist with the chops and sensitivity of someone twice his height.

Bill "the Spaceman" Fanning rounds out the horns on trumpet. Bill has performed with Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, the Mu'tet, Glenn Frye (of the Eagles), George Garzone, Jon Faddis, Maria Schneider and George Russell. In 2005, Coffin produced Bill's debut CD, "Parakletos". A brilliant improvisor and musician, Bill is stretching the boundries of the trumpet by using guitar pedals while still rooting his technique, concept, and sound in the masters.

Mike Seal is a "Young Lion" of the guitar world. He sets people back in their seats with his burning lines, stunning ideas and a remarkable tone that defies his 25 years on the planet. You might hear a little John Scofield, Jimi Hendrix, Derek Trucks, Tony Rice, Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Lionel Loueke, but you’re always hearing Mike Seal. Listen up, he’s the real deal."

I really enjoyed the Mu'tet's previous album, 2008's "Mutopia", and as live albums go, the Mu'tet's latest is wonderful, beginning with the funky and infectious "Tag", with a bass line that fans of all things Pastorious will love. Personally, I've always loved the drumming of Sipe, beginning with his work with the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Leftover Salmon and even Jazz is Dead. On the tune "Mad Hatter Rides Again", Sipe is at his crispy best, propelling Burbridge to display some of his best work on the Fender Rhodes. Coffin's latin-flavored "L'Esperance" was perhaps my favorite; the horn arrangements are some of the album's best; the textures thoughtful and Sipe was once again, amazing.

Truly, there is not another band quite like Jeff Coffin & the Mu'tet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building Bill Bruford's Symmetrical Tama Kit

Image
In two of my previous blogs, I wrote about successfully restoring a Tama "Bill Bruford Signature Series Palette" snare drum , and then building a duplicate version wrapped in chrome . Although they looked and sounded great, I thought about completing this project by adding a kit to go with it. Now I suppose I could always could buy a Tama Starclassic kit, and use the snares I built, but where is the fun in that? Bruford's Signature snare drum had all black Tama lugs, just like his Tama kit with King Crimson. That particular kit was a Canary Yellow Tama with deep power toms. Bruford would reappear with a another version of that yellow kit at the 1999 Modern Drummer Festival alongside his all acoustic Earthworks band. That kit also had black lugs, and featured an 18" kick drum, 16", 13", 12" and 10" toms. That kit appeared to be a rarity, perhaps even custom-made for Bruford. I've never seen another Tama kit that matched it. If I could gather...
Read more

Building the Phil Collins Gretsch Kit - Part One

Image
Back in 2017, I managed to acquire a dozen of the revolutionary new wireless Versatriggers from Poland; Battery powered drum triggers you can mount inside a drum shell. Replace the acoustic drum head with a mesh head and you have yourself a v-drum. I first tried out the Versatrigger on an old Viking snare I'd converted previously with an internal Pintech trigger, and a Remo Silent Stroke mesh head. After connecting the Versatrigger wireless USB hub to my MacBook Air, I was able to tweak the sensitivity and trigger the drum surprisingly well. I also learned I needed to be able to access the trigger for adjustments and battery replacement, so double headed toms weren't practical. The kick and snare are easy enough to cut out a round hole in the bottom head, but the toms would have to be easy to access as well. A modest kit with concert toms would work perfectly. I didn't want to build just another small v-drum kit of virtually identical trigger pads either, so when ...
Read more

Building the Bill Bruford Signature Snare - Part One

Image
Bill Bruford's "rimshot" is one of the most unique and exquisite snare drum sounds ever heard. From his earlier days on his 14"x 5.5" Ludwig Supraphonic Super-Sensitive snare with Yes, to his brass 14" x 6.5" Tama Big Beat snare with King Crimson, Bruford's crisp rolls and sticking technique were a thing of beauty and a joy to behold.  In his later years, Bruford moved away from the metal snare drums of rock, to the jazzier sound of the all-maple 14"x 6.5" Tama Starclassic snare drum with his all-acoustic group Earthworks.  It was during that era that Tama offered the "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" snare drum, a customized, 6 ply Starclassic; 2 ply Maple, 2 ply Birch and 2 ply Maple. It was also outfitted with all black hardware; lugs, hoops, strainer and a custom "Black Metallic Sand Blasted" finish, with Bill Bruford's personally autographed and numbered decal. Listing for around $650, the snare quic...
Read more