Jeff Coffin, of the Flecktones and Dave Matthews band talked with us last week about improvisation.
First he played a crazy solo tenor improvisation, then we talked about what was in it.
We heard a ton of ideas. He played at least a solid 15 -20 minutes. You can use some of them in your own improvisation, but you don’t need to use all of them at once.
Mostly it’s just something to check out and think about.
I include most of the ideas:
12 notes+
anger (emotion)
assertive
body and soul
breathing
certainty
character
colorful
Coltrane
comfortable
control
cultural
do what you want
dynamics
ebb/flow
endurance
excitement
explorative
expressive
fat tone
fingers in weird places
flash
focus
foolish things (the song)
freedom
fun
good time
groove
harmonics
harmonies
howling
illustrating
ingenuity
innovation
insanity
instructive
intuitive
irreverence
jc!
listening
lots of air
loud
love
lover man
machine gun
messing around
no limits
observations
octaves
out there
pain
passionate
percussion
personal
phrasing
popping
purpose
quotes
release
resolution
responsive
rhythm
silly
sky
slipping/sliding
space
speed
spontaneity
strength
suspense
technique
tension
tradition
unresolving
variety
vibrato
vocal
way cool
Jeff is a great player. I used to live in his home town ( Nashville ) and had the opportunity to hear him many times ( 1994 – 2003 ) and watch his technique progress. Very dedicated player and obviously a big fan of Sonny Rollins.
You should post a video of him, if there is any available.