Jeff Coffin: No Wrong Notes

Jeff Coffin

Jeff Coffin has played concerts in front of tens of thousands of fans with the Dave Matthews Band. But when he stepped onstage at the East Village club Drom in November, to celebrate the release of Side Up (Ear Up), his Mu’tet’s sixth studio album, the multireedist had a rare moment of performance anxiety. He sat down at the piano and proceeded to play an unaccompanied sonata.

“It’s scary every time I play,” admits Coffin, who is not a trained pianist. “I know that I’m going to mess something up, even though it’s very simple.”