Kofi Burbridge is sitting inside Nova’s Bakery in Plaza Midwood. He got home from his tour with Jeff Coffin’s MuTet a few days ago. There’s enough time to do laundry, get his mail and catch a Prince concert in town. He’ll probably see his parents and sister who also live in Charlotte before he heads back out on the road, this time with the Tedeschi Trucks Band. He moved to Charlotte five years ago, but if he had to count up the time he’s actually been in town, it doesn’t add up to much.
“I was off for a week and a half in the winter… maybe four days in February… and a week right now,” Burbridge says. “When I get here, it feels like home — still a new home though.”
He enjoys the time he gets when he’s in town — recently catching a show by Charlotte’s Actual Proof, and occasionally sitting in with nationally touring bands that are passing through. But there just isn’t much of it. Not too long ago, Burbridge was in Atlanta and ready to settle down in one place — life off the road. But when the Derek Trucks Band came calling 12 years ago in the fall of 1999, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
“I didn’t want to go back on the road at the time, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Burbridge says. “Derek was the immediate attraction to the band, but then I saw Yonrico Scott on the drums — we used to be roommates. I originally avoided them for about a month, but they really were such decent people and so much fun to hang with, that I gave it a shot. The rest is history.”
His talents have carried him through to the new husband-and-wife-led Tedeschi Trucks Band, formed by the breaking up of both Susan Tedeschi’s band and the Derek Trucks Band in late 2009. It not only keeps him working, but affords him the opportunity to do major touring with his brother, Oteil, known for his bass-playing role in the Allman Brothers Band.
“Playing with Derek is my bread and butter, but my style is closer to what I play with Jeff Coffin,” Burbridge says. “[Tedeschi Trucks Band] isn’t that different from what I did with Derek Trucks Band. There’s less flute right now — it’s focused on songs. It leans toward Susan and it’s very soulful and there are more grooves. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes. To still be on board with them is a blessing.”
Burbridge has a long history in music. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem in the late 1970s and became a member of the group After 7 in the early 1990s, touring with MC Hammer and Whitney Houston. He was also a part of the Aquarium Rescue Unit — a band that introduced him to a lot of people he plays with today.
These days, when he isn’t touring with the eight-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band, he finds time for the MuTet, which he’s been a member of for the last two years. If there’s more time, he performs with the Vertigo Jazz Project. If he can scrape together more free time, he’s working on a new band with Oteil. Even more time, and he’s trying to get together a solo album this year.
“We all have a lot on our plates, but we share schedules as soon as we can and see where the time is,” he says. “I’ve got a great main gig, but a bad-ass side gig, too. Oteil and I have set aside a week in May when we’re going to try some things out. It’ll be easier too because we’ll be on the road together. My solo work is going to be more compositional — not just keyboards or flute.”
As Burbridge drinks his coffee and shares stories about his history and upbringing, you get the sense of a man comfortable with this moment of rest. Burbridge isn’t someone rushing to get back out on a tour bus, but a 49-year-old content with everything going on his life, grateful for the people he performs with and thankful for every new gig that comes his way.
“This is what I love to do,” Burbridge says. “This is a lucky thing that I’m doing for a living and I’m beginning to realize that.”
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2011.
