Darren Jessee
Depending on which quotes you got above in the random quotes, I apologize if they offend you. I don't mean it, but I'm saying it anyway...
Darren is the drummer in Ben Folds Five. He also does backup vocals. He helped to write two of Ben Folds Five's biggest hits to date - Brick and Song for the Dumped. He also helped to write other songs such as Where's Summer B.? and Kate.
If you're looking at the above picture, you can see what Darren looks like. That's a picture from like, 1995, though. Now he's cut off all his hair, and looks more like the below picture. However I just like the top one better.
Name
Date of Birth
Age
Plays
- 1967 Ludwig drums - 20" bass drum, floor tom, mounted tom, snare
- Zildjian cymbals
- Vic Firth 5A sticks with wood tips
- also does backing vocals
- he plays a Turkish gong
- he uses timpanis on some songs, such as "Magic". He also plays a triangle.
- he can play the guitar, which he did at his solo shows, and on his original version of "Magic" (which was called "The Magic That Holds The Sky Up From The Ground"). However he doesn't play the guitar on any Ben Folds Five songs.
Previous/other
- played in the marching band at his high school
- an appearance on Barry Black's album
- played in a band called Armageddon
- played drums in a band called In Limbo, released a CD called "What?"
- played in a band called How Town
- released a song by himself called "The Magic that Holds the Sky Up From the Ground" on a rape and violence benefit CD called "The Garden Place: Songs by our Friends". This song was also recorded by Ben Folds Five and it appears on their album The Unauthorised Biography Of Reinhold Messner.
- has played a number of solo shows in New York City. Songs he played include: "Somebody's Accident", "Magic", and others.
Other Instruments
Wrote
- collabarated on
- Song for the Dumped
- Brick
- Kate
- Air
- kane wo kaese
- For those of ya'll that wear fannie packs
- The Ultimate Sacrifice
- Bad Idea
- Satan is my Master
- Mitchell Lane
- Where's Summer B.?
- Your Most Valuable Possession
Musical training
Other Stuff
- Darren was going to be a lawyer but his grandmother told him to be a drummer instead, so he did. I just find that idea amusing.
- It was Darren who inspired the name of the album The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. The story is that he and all his friends had fake ID's with the name Reinhold Messner on them. The story's actually quite funny. Click here to read an interview with Ben where he tells the story (about halfway down the page).
this page is by Crystal Lee Cooper
DrPyser@tmbg.org