Jazz Influenced: Ben Folds

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Here we are! Berkleejazz is also continuing our Jazz Influenced series, where we take a look at more mainstream artists and their background and influences rooted in jazz. We’re starting back up with Ben Folds, a popular singer/songwriter, producer, and front man of Ben Folds Five. His music has been defined in several different ways: Power Pop, Piano Rock, “Punk for Sissies” (as Ben himself has called it), or something completely different. His music is all of that, yet nobody can deny the strong undertones of jazz in his playing and songwriting.

Listening to the harmonies of Folds’ tunes with Both Ben Folds Five, and his solo career, it’s clear that there are jazz undertones at work. His use of melody over unconventional chord progressions, grooves, walking bass lines, and time signatures reveals that his music is geared towards a more advanced ear, though no one can deny the punk-ish aesthetic of his frequent near-destruction of his piano onstage.

Ben Folds was born on September 12, 1966 in North Carolina. Folds began playing piano at an early age when his father, a carpenter, brought a piano home as payment for a job from a customer who was unable to pay cash. Folds soon began to pick up songs off the radio and play them by ear. Artists like Billy Joel and Elton John compelled him to continue playing. Throughout high school, Ben played in several bands on piano, as well as bass or drums — other instruments for which he proved to have a gift.

In 1988, Folds released an independent record with friend Millard Powers on bass. Their band, Majosha, released several records through the late ’80s which were sold in record shops. They played many shows in their community at clubs and frat parties. Majosha broke up in 1990, after which Ben tried to form other groups as a drummer.

In the early ’90s Ben lived in Nashville, Tennessee, where he’d gotten a publishing deal with Scott Siman. Ben also played in several groups there, where he had no creative input, yet still interested record labels. Ben stayed in Nashville for awhile, working as a session drummer. He left Nashville to attend the Frost School of Music in Miami, where he later dropped out with only one credit to go before graduating. Folds recalled spending months working on his piano technique, “running scales like a freak.”

Folds’ most known group, Ben Folds Five, was formed in 1995 after he moved back to North Carolina with bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee. The group released four albums between 1995 and 1999. Their most successful release was their second, Whatever And Ever Amen, which featured several singles like “Brick” and “Song For The Dumped.”

Ben Folds Five enjoyed success on several Billboard charts before the release of their final record in 1999, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. Ben had been fighting with his record label over creative control of this particular record, which was originally presented to the label as a single long track, with all the songs presented in a sort of medley form. The album turned many BFF fans off and the band’s touring schedule was dwindling. Ben Folds Five broke up soon after the 1999 release, which was arguably their most creative record.

Ben Folds began his solo career soon after, releasing his first solo record Rockin’ The Suburbs in 2001, and in 2002 releasing a solo piano concert titled Ben Folds Live. Ben continued to release albums consistently. By 2008, he’d released Songs For Silverman, Sunny 16, Speed Graphic EP, Super D, Way To Normal, Supersunnyspeedgraphic The LP, as well as songs for the movies Hoodwinked! and Over The Hedge. In October 2006, Folds became the first musician to broadcast a live performance on Myspace. In 2009, Ben became a judge, alongside Sara Bareilles, on the hit show The Sing-Off, which featured competition among America’s best a capella groups. In 2010 Ben Folds released Lonely Avenue with author Nick Hornby, who wrote all the lyrics for the album. Most recently, Ben Folds Five have reunited and released an album of all new material titled The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind.

Jazz influences are most heard in Folds’ work during the Ben Folds Five years. Below is the entire album of Whatever And Ever Amen, BFF’s most successful release. Take one listen and you’ll surely hear jazz at play in almost every tune!