Jeff Coffin & the Mu'tet in Central PA

[gtidmb]

Just wanted to give you all a heads up:

I'm hosting Jeff and the Mu'tet at my high school on Wednesday, March 16. I'm the jazz band director and I got Jeff to come do a clinic with my kids and then give a concert at night. Am I the best band director ever? Possibly.

Anyway, here's the info.

Northern Lebanon High School - Fredericksburg, PA (about 20 min from Hershey)
Wednesday, March 16 7pm
Tix are only $10 adults/$8 students

[seekup41nancies]

Great work sir! Jeff is such a nice guy.

[Brohan_Santana]

Nice. I go to Millersville, so I'm not far from there. Will tickets be sold at the door?

[gtidmb]

Ah Millersville -my alumni. Yes, tix will be sold at the door.

[Brohan_Santana]

Can I reserve some tickets?

[gtidmb]

I just PM'd you...

[Brohan_Santana]

Tonight is the night!

[breckbrew]

What the hell!!?!?!?! How did I miss this??????? Shit.

[Brohan_Santana]

Congrats to the Northern Lebanon High School jazz band. They really did an awesome job playing and did an awesome job covering Jeff's original. I was very impressed being a former high school jazz band player. Very great experience!

[hmich176]

I'm sure that must have been cool, sadly I couldn't go check it out.

[gtidmb]

So yesterday was simply great. I can not say enough good things about Jeff and all the guys in the Mu'tet. All the guys were really down-to-earth and really took the time to interact with the kids and answer their questions and give them good musical advice. Having Jeff sit in with my jazz band was such an honor and a great experience. I already had a ton of respect for him, but after working with him and chatting with him all day, I just think he is an awesome human being. He cares so much about his craft and educating the students. At no point during the day did I feel like it was just another stop on their tour and they were just going through the motions to get the paycheck. They always had an upbeat and enthusiastic attitude, which I imagine has got to be tough when you are on the road away from home. They all thanked me for hosting them and told me what a great job the jazz band did. Jeff Sipe, the drummer, gave me one of his CDs to pass on to my drummer and asked me to let him know that he enjoyed his playing right before they got in the van to leave.

In DMB related discussion, one of my kids asked him what it was like playing with DMB after the show while he was packing up his gear. I'm going to paraphrase, but this is what he had to say: playing with the band is great. It's a lot of fun, and it feels really intimate on stage with them. It's always about the music with those guys, and that's why I play with them. It has to be. Otherwise, I wouldn't do the gig. That's just not me. It's not about the money. Obviously they've been playing for a long time and have sold a lot of records, so they've made a lot of money, but that's not why they do it. They say all the time, it's always about the music. The music is at the center of everything they do.

I thought that was a really great answer, and really refreshing to hear. I personally didn't talk to him at all about DMB or Flecktones. He was here with his group, doing his thing and I didn't want to be rude or put down what he was doing. To me that's like, "yeah, you play well, but i want to know about DAVE, bro!" So before you even ask, no I didn't pry for the other Caravan locations or any other DMB rumors.

[breckbrew]

Originally Posted by gtidmb

So yesterday was simply great. I can not say enough good things about Jeff and all the guys in the Mu'tet. All the guys were really down-to-earth and really took the time to interact with the kids and answer their questions and give them good musical advice. Having Jeff sit in with my jazz band was such an honor and a great experience. I already had a ton of respect for him, but after working with him and chatting with him all day, I just think he is an awesome human being. He cares so much about his craft and educating the students. At no point during the day did I feel like it was just another stop on their tour and they were just going through the motions to get the paycheck. They always had an upbeat and enthusiastic attitude, which I imagine has got to be tough when you are on the road away from home. They all thanked me for hosting them and told me what a great job the jazz band did. Jeff Sipe, the drummer, gave me one of his CDs to pass on to my drummer and asked me to let him know that he enjoyed his playing right before they got in the van to leave.

In DMB related discussion, one of my kids asked him what it was like playing with DMB after the show while he was packing up his gear. I'm going to paraphrase, but this is what he had to say: playing with the band is great. It's a lot of fun, and it feels really intimate on stage with them. It's always about the music with those guys, and that's why I play with them. It has to be. Otherwise, I wouldn't do the gig. That's just not me. It's not about the money. Obviously they've been playing for a long time and have sold a lot of records, so they've made a lot of money, but that's not why they do it. They say all the time, it's always about the music. The music is at the center of everything they do.

I thought that was a really great answer, and really refreshing to hear. I personally didn't talk to him at all about DMB or Flecktones. He was here with his group, doing his thing and I didn't want to be rude or put down what he was doing. To me that's like, "yeah, you play well, but i want to know about DAVE, bro!" So before you even ask, no I didn't pry for the other Caravan locations or any other DMB rumors.

Great job. That is a really great story and the impact on the students is probably immeasurable.