Jeff Coffin, a saxophone player who grew up in Dexter, became the first Mainer inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night as a member of the Dave Matthews Band.
The Dave Matthews Band was inducted into the Rock Hall alongside other 2024 inductees, in a ceremony that was broadcast live on streaming platform Disney+, a replay of which is now available to watch. Actress Julia Roberts inducted the band, which later performed a medley of some of its biggest hits, including “Ants Marching,” “So Much To Say” and “Crash Into Me,” as well as a cover of the Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House.”
Other inductees this year included Cher, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & the Gang, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Big Mama Thornton in the Musical Influence category, and Jimmy Buffett, the MC5, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield in the Musical Excellence category.
Coffin, who joined the Dave Matthews Band in 2009 after the death of its longtime horn player LeRoi Moore, first learned his craft while a student in Dexter schools, under the tutelage of Dexter music teacher Arthur Legasse. After attending college in New Hampshire, Coffin became an in-demand studio musician in Nashville, while also teaching at Maine Jazz Camp at the University of Maine at Farmington and performing in southern Maine.
When he’s not touring with Dave Matthews Band, Coffin teaches music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and regularly returns to Maine to lead jazz master classes at high schools.
