Chad Wackerman (born March 25, 1960) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and key ...

and rock drummer, who has played with

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of A ...

and

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist and composer. Holdsworth was known for his esoteric and idiosyncratic usage of advanced music theory concepts, especially with respe ...

. He has worked as a band member,

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

sideman A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform live with a solo artist, or with a group in which they are not a regular band member. The term is usually used to describe musicians that play with jazz or rock artists, whether solo ...

, and leader of his own ensembles. He is the older brother of drummers John Wackerman and

Brooks Wackerman Brooks Wackerman (born February 15, 1977) is an American musician. He is the current drummer of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, which he joined in 2015. His first album with Avenged Sevenfold was ''The Stage'' (2016). He is most known as t ...

Musical career

Wackerman was raised in

Seal Beach, California Seal Beach is a coastal city in Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,242, up from 24,168 at the 2010 census. Seal Beach is located in the westernmost corner of Orange County. To the northwest ...

, in a family immersed in music. His father Chuck Wackerman, a drummer, is a music teacher who has taught at both high school and middle school levels with a specialization in jazz. Chad and his brothers John and Brooks are all proficient drummers and multi-instrumentalists. John recorded an album titled ''Drum Duets Vol.1''. Wackerman joined the

Bill Watrous William Russell Watrous III (June 8, 1939 – July 2, 2018) was an American jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his rendition of Sammy Nestico's arrangement of the Johnny Mandel ballad "A Time for Love", which he recorded on a 1993 alb ...

band in 1978, and then worked with

from 1981 to 1988. Zappa demanded high musical standards and imposed exacting discipline in rehearsal and on tour. The auditions for his band were "grueling", according to

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist f ...

and Wackerman himself. Two pieces of music, "Mo 'n Herb's Vacation", and " The Black Page" were considered exceptionally difficult. Only three drummers throughout Zappa's career were able to play them successfully: Wackerman,

Terry Bozzio Terry John Bozzio (born December 27, 1950) is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa. He has been featured on nine solo or collaborative albums, 26 albums with Zappa and seven albums with Missing Pers ...

, and

Vinnie Colaiuta Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the '' Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2014. Colai ...

. In an interview with

Drum Magazine A drum magazine is a type of high-capacity magazine for firearms. Cylindrical in shape (similar to a drum), drum magazines store rounds in a spiral around the center of the magazine, facing the direction of the barrel. Drum magazines are contr ...

, Bozzio noted that although he and Colaiuta gained more notoriety from playing with Zappa, Wackerman performed Zappa's most challenging material. In addition to appearing on Zappa's rock albums and tours, Wackerman performed with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

in 1983 on a concert and recording session of Zappa's compositions.

Sideman and session musician

Allan Holdsworth, Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Johnson

In 1985, Wackerman toured with, but did not record for, Australian rock act

Men at Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Down Under", " Who Can It Be Now?", " Be Good Johnny", "Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is Col ...

. He played on the album and supporting video '' One Voice'' with

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

. He has also recorded albums and toured with diverse artists such as

Andy Summers Andrew James Summers (born 31 December 1942), is an English guitarist who was a member of the rock band The Police. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a band member in 2003. Summers has recorded solo albums, collaborated w ...

, Ed Mann,

Albert Lee Albert William Lee (born 21 December 1943) is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked, both in the studio and on tour, with many famous musicians from a wide range of genres. He has also mai ...

Colin Hay Colin James Hay (born 29 June 1953) is a Scottish-Australian musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and the sole continuous member of the band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist. Hay's music h ...

, Ed Kuepper,

Dweezil Zappa Dweezil Zappa (born Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa; September 5, 1969) is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor. He is the son of musical composer and performer Frank Zappa. Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Dweezil deve ...

and Tom Grant. Wackerman was also the drummer for the

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

on the first

Dennis Miller Dennis Michael Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1991, and he subsequently hosted a strin ...

late night talk show. Wackerman has also toured with

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, hav ...

, Mark Linn-Baker and

Larry Sweeney Alexander K. Whybrow (February 18, 1981April 11, 2011) was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name Larry Sweeney. He performed primarily on the American independent circuit, but also competed in Canada, Mexico ...

John Patitucci John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer. Biography John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. When he was 12, he bought his first bass and decided on his career. He listened to bass parts in R ...

Jeff Lorber Jeffrey H. Lorber (born November 4, 1952) is an American keyboardist, composer, and record producer. After six previous nominations, Lorber won his first Grammy Award on January 28, 2018 for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for ''Prototype' ...

, and

Joe Sample Joseph Leslie Sample (February 1, 1939 – September 12, 2014) was an American keyboardist and composer. He was one of the founding members of The Jazz Crusaders in 1960, the band which shortened its name to "The Crusaders" in 1971. He remained ...

, as well as fellow Zappa drummer Terry Bozzio in a series of all-percussion concerts. Wackerman lived in Australia for ten years between 1995 and 2005, but moved back to California in July 2005. Replacing drummer Marco Minnemann, Wackerman toured with

Steven Wilson Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corro ...

's band through 2013 in support of Wilson's album '' The Raven That Refused to Sing.''

Chad Wackerman Trio

The current Chad Wackerman Trio consists of Wackerman (drums), Doug Lunn (1954–2017; bass), and Mike Miller (guitar). Wackerman's solo albums include guitar contributions from

Discography

* ''

Forty Reasons ''Forty Reasons'' is the first studio album by drummer Chad Wackerman, released in 1991 through CMP Records;

'' (1991) * '' The View'' (1993) * '' Scream'' (2000) * ''

Legs Eleven ''Legs Eleven'' is the fourth studio album by drummer Chad Wackerman, released in 2004 through the Australia Council for the Arts. Track listing Personnel *Chad Wackerman – drum kit, drums, percussion instrument, percussion *James Muller � ...

'' (2004) * ''

Dreams Nightmares and Improvisations ''Dreams Nightmares and Improvisations'' is the fifth studio album by drummer Chad Wackerman, released independently in February 2012.. chadwackerman.com. 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2015-04-01. For the first time since Wackerman's 1993 album '' The Vi ...

'' (2012)

References

External links

*
Yamaha Australia page
*

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wackerman, Chad 1960 births American jazz drummers Musicians from Long Beach, California Living people American session musicians Men at Work members 20th-century American drummers American male drummers American male jazz musicians Favored Nations artists Jazz musicians from California