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Drumming isn’t just about making music — it’s also therapy, says Darren Williams, Jr., who has cerebral palsy.
“Motion is lotion,” he tells me.
Williams, 37, of Springfield, has been invited to speak at one of the largest drum and percussion instruments events in the world in November.
He will be on a panel with two or three other drummers from across the nation who have faced different physical challenges.
One battles migraines and one, he believes, has only one hand.
The Percussive Arts Society is a nonprofit founded 60 years ago. It is a music-service organization with a mission to inspire, educate and support percussionists and drummers throughout the world.
It has more than 5,000 members with 48 chapters in the United States and 20 in other countries.
Williams had always dreamed of attending the conference. But now he will not only attend, he will be a panelist.
“I am blown away by it. It is hard to kind of let it sink in. In my mind, I have just been a drummer. I have been playing since I was 8. It takes a big deal for me to see the ‘special’ in it. … I am tremendously proud, beyond flattered.”
Williams has had a dozen major surgeries in his life because of his cerebral palsy. When he was 25 he had a hip replaced.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cerebral palsy is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. It is the most common motor disability in childhood.
“Cerebral” means having to do with the brain. “Palsy” means weakness or problems with muscles. It is caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain.
For Williams, the damage occurred at birth. He briefly suffered a loss of oxygen.
The contraction of his muscles has taken a toll on his joints over the years. He has serious arthritis.
For short walks he uses a cane. For longer treks he uses a wheelchair.
“My right arm and my back are most affected.”
Williams cannot completely straighten his right arm.
His arrangement of drums is different than other drummers. He sits higher in his chair and closer to his drums.
His drum pedal is loose so he does not need to use much force to move it. (His bass drum has a logo of a drummer in a wheel chair.)
The sound is electronically amplified.
“I do not have to hit things so hard,” he says.
Just before the pandemic, he says, he was posting videos of himself drumming on Facebook and YouTube.
Then, COVID-19 caused people to spend more times indoors and online. People started to notice his playing.
After that, Jeff “The Mystery Hour” Houghton, of Springfield, made note of Williams on The Mystery Hour Facebook page.
Things exploded.
“It went from local guys who were loving what I was doing — to New York, to Australia. It just blew up.”
Williams makes some money through his home studio, where he records artists throughout the Ozarks and shoots videos of them.
He also drums in bands such as Queen City Vinyl and the Final Piece.
But he is far from wealthy; a main source of income is public assistance because of his disability.
He did not have the funds to travel to Indianapolis.
He calculated the cost of four nights in a hotel, airfare, meals and travel in Indianapolis via Uber and came up with a $2,000 total.
Once Houghton put out the word, Williams says, it seemed like he blinked and half the money was raised.
So far, people have donated a total of $2,700 toward his trip via venmo account, @handidrummer.
He continues to accept donations, explaining he will keep half of everything over $2,000 for his ongoing expenses and donate the other half to charity, possibly the Cerebral Palsy Foundation.
Williams has converted much of the home he rents into studio space. It is filled with drum sets, recording equipment and guitars.
He does recording work with musicians who sometimes pay him not in cash or bitcoin, but with instruments.
“I play a little bit of bass. A little bit of piano and a whole lot of drums.”
Can you sing?
“No! I can hum a melody.”
Williams is single and shares custody of his 3-year-old son, Darren Williams III, or Tre. He has the boy every other week.
“He is a cute kid. I got very lucky. I did a lot of things in my life — especially in my younger years — that I cannot say I am necessarily proud of. But he is the one thing I have done right.”
He also shares the house with Sadie Lady, his dog.
Williams grew up in North St. Louis.
He had musical parents; his father played saxophone and his mother played oboe.
His older cousin handed him his first set of drum sticks when he was 8. He is self taught and has been drumming ever since.
Growing up, he says, he had to make a choice.
“I was either going to be out in the streets or in the church. I had to pick a side.”
He chose the church. In fact, the reason he came to Springfield years ago was to attend the former Central Bible College, which was affiliated with the Assemblies of God. He attended for a year.
The campus closed in May 2013 when the school consolidated with Evangel University and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. The Bible College has since been sold.
Williams and his family moved to Illinois, where he went to high school in Alton. He graduated in 2003 and played in the marching band.
Marching band? How?
The drummers and other percussion players — timpani and xylophone — did not march with the band, he explains. They were near the football-field sideline, although they did have to dash between the two 40-yard-lines.
“But we also marched in parades,” he adds.
At first, he says, he was placed in the back of a truck and he threw candy to the crowd as other band members marched.
But the Band Dads of Alton High wouldn’t have it.
They rigged his wheelchair with two lengths of rebar so the chair could accommodate his drum.
They took turns pushing his chair as he “marched” with the band down many Main Streets.
The upcoming panel in Indianapolis, he says, will have a further reach than one might think.
“Who knows who is going to be in that room? There might be someone there who has just had a hip replacement. Or there might be someone with fibromyalgia.”
Fibromyalgia causes widespread pain.
Williams believes he can help such people, as well as others, and he can’t wait to do so.
Full story: HERE
