As a trombone player during his school days, Apopka High School graduate Jeff Coffey grew up listening to lots of rock ‘n’ roll. One of the groups he enjoyed listening to was the band Chicago with its brass sounds interfused with traditional rock ‘n’ roll guitar, electric bass, keyboard, and drums.He wore out cassette tapes and later bought the CD of Chicago’s albums in the mid-1980s.
Little did the 1986 Apopka High School graduate know at the time, but 30 years after graduating from AHS, he would become a member of the legendary musical group.
Now, Coffey has nearly a year under his belt as a member of Chicago, a band that formed the year he was born – 1967.
Baby What a Big Surprise
This week – April 26 – marked the one-year anniversary of when Coffey got the call offering him an audition to replace Jason Scheff as a bass player and vocalist. Scheff had replaced the legendary Peter Cetera, who was not only the voice of Chicago but the band’s bass player until 1985.
That phone call, oddly enough, came because of time that Coffey had spent in Nashville, Tenn.
“I started going up to Nashville and re-connected with some of my old bandmates who moved up there and networked with a bunch of A-list musicians up there, guys who were in the touring bands for big country artists,” Coffey said.
“We would do these monthly jams in a club. It was a great experience. It was one-stop shopping. I could meet, hang out with, and perform in front of and with all these A-class musicians. It was great networking.”
Out of the blue came the phone call.
“I did that for about a year and all of a sudden, I got a phone call from Keith Howland from Chicago. I jumped at the opportunity.”
There wasn’t a lot of lead time before the audition because Chicago was set to begin a tour.
“I had two weeks to learn an entire two-hour show of roughly 32 songs, and memorize the lyrics,” Coffey said.
“I sing about 2/3 of the show, so it was a lot of stuff. It was a cram but I was ready. I flew up to Nashville and rehearsed a few more days with Keith.”
The audition for Chicago for the man from Apopka was held in Detroit via Nashville about a month after Chicago was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which is in Cleveland, Ohio.
“The audition process was the day before the first show,” Coffey said.
“We all got together. The whole stage was set up. We ran through the entire show. Another vocalist also auditioning, and we ran through every Peter Cetera song twice, once for me to sing it and once for him to sing it, but I played bass, so it was a three-and-half hour or four-hour audition process. It was non-stop, no breaks. I crammed and I was ready.
“I did pretty well so they offered me the spot right after the audition.”
After a few weeks of touring with the band, the group made it official, announcing the Apopkan as the newest member of Chicago.
“Never in a million years did I think that going up to Nashville would have opened up a door to a group like Chicago, but there it was.”
Beginnings
Coffey, who will be 50 in September, got his musical start in Apopka, attending middle school and high school while playing trombone in the band.
At Apopka High School, his band director was Bill Bradshaw who was in that position for 20 years.
Bradshaw was influential in Coffey’s career in music, teaching him the finer points.
“I learned so much about being a musician from him,” Coffey said about Bradshaw.
“He was such a mentor. He went way beyond teaching you the notes. He taught you expression and feeling, and playing with other people. I learned so much from him.”
After graduating from Apopka High, Coffey attended Stetson University and the University of Central Florida, playing in jazz bands and other groups.
He also played trombone at Walt Disney World as a student musician. It was there that Coffey began thinking about making his mark in music without the trombone.
As he put it, Coffey began “dabbling” with the bass guitar while a member of a local rock band in middle school and high school.
In college, “I really spent more time diving into the bass and learning the bass.”
While a pretty good trombone player, Coffey saw where he stood in relation to other top trombonists.
“I had met some amazing trombone players both in college and at Disney, guys who were way better than I was ever going to be on trombone. That’s when I made the decision – after my second year at UCF – to stop playing trombone. I sold all my trombones and bought bass gear, joined a band, wrote a bunch of songs, and hit the road.”
After playing several years with a couple of bands and doing some solo work as well, Coffey dropped from the music scene for about four years, taking a musical break until a couple of years ago.
But his heart wouldn’t let him stay out of it any longer.
“I really missed music,” he said. “It was this big, gaping hole I didn’t have in my life anymore. I really missed it.”
“I thought, ‘You only go around once. You’ve got to do what you do best and see what happens.’ I started playing again. I started writing again.”
That’s when he went to Nashville and eventually got the call to audition for Chicago.
Make Me Smile
In late June and early July, Chicago, along with the Doobie Brothers, will play three shows in Florida – June 29 in Tampa, June 30 in West Palm Beach, and July 1 in Jacksonville.
Coffey, who has two children with his wife, Holly, said that family members will attend the three Florida shows and that others he grew up with in Apopka are also planning to attend.
He’s hoping to be able to talk with some of them backstage.
“I have a lot of high school friends who are coming.”
The long-term future looks bright for Chicago, Coffey said.
“I don’t foresee those guys – the original remaining guys – slowing down much,” he said.
“They really enjoy music. They will do it until they physically can’t anymore.
“They’ve been doing it for 50 years and they’ve never taken a year off. Many bands will take a couple of years off and then tour again.”
Chicago routinely does 100 to 115 shows a year, Coffey said.
He hopes to not only sing and play bass on Chicago’s hit songs of the past, but he’s hoping to make his own mark with the legendary group.
“The main thing I’m looking forward to is writing new music. We’re talking about to what extent we’re going to record new music,” Coffey said.
“I’m excited about being a part of that Chicago legacy and putting out new music with my involvement. That really excites me.”
Sometimes, fans of a group like Chicago that has been around for so long want the band to look and sound exactly like it did when the group first broke onto the music scene and they’re often not welcoming of new band members, but that’s not been the case, Coffey said.
“The fans have been warmly receptive of me and they’re really liking how the shows are sounding and there’s a lot of chatter out there about a new album. That would be something I’m very excited about.”
