Jeff Coffin (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones) has Nils Felder (Robert Glasper), Futureman Wooten (Flecktones, Wooten Brothers) and James Genus (Saturday Night Live Band ) in a new collaboration. Dream Horizon brings a wealth of musical ideas from their collective experience to perform his compositions in one continuous set.

It was the first time Jeff has played the Falcon, he continuously praised the ambiance and the vibe of the Falcon. Jeff had a few surprises on his own.

• It was sound engineer, Ryan’s birthday. He was invited on stage for a surprise birthday cake.
• Indian American alto jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa made a guest appearance, the stage briefly had an alto saxophonist and tenor saxophonist on.

The band showed it meant business by playing 3 challenging numbers in a row.

Opening with the reverential, almost sacred “Karla Blue”, following with “Mellow Yellow” and “Big Top Bob”.

Jeff Coffin played the main theme or riff, starting solo or sometimes joined by Nils Felder on guitar. The groove being maintained by James Genus on bass and Roy “Futureman” Wooten on drum kit. All manner of duets and unison playing were performwed. Noteworthy was that Futureman was playing with out his usual electronic inventions such as the drumitar and boxes.

“One Eyed Walls” was followed by a duet with Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto on “Blow Out the Wall”. Rudresh is no stranger to upstate with appearances at Lake George Jazz Fest and Saratoga Jazz Fest. His appearance at Lake George was with the late Bunky Green they mesmerized the audience with their appearances.

The band then drastically changed the pace by music inspired by the waft of pollen reminding Jeff of his southern roots, “Sweet Magnolia” was played dolce and enveloped the audience with its sweet seductive sound,

The sound of the late Yusef Lateef’s horn was the inspiration for Jeff’s composition “Yusef”. Jeff played the initial part of the composition just fingering the horn to let it “breathe”.

The Encore was back to the pace of the set , ” A Little Jungle Fever”. This band has yet to have a recorded project. Here’s to hoping there is one in the near future and more live performances as their busy schedules allow.

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