Chad Wackerman

Chad Wackerman ranks among the most accomplished percussionists working in rock and contemporary jazz. Born March 25, 1960, in Long Beach, California, he trained under several leading area drummers, among them Chuck Flores. His first major professional break arrived in 1978 with trombonist Bill Watrous, soon followed by an extended association with Frank Zappa that placed Wackerman among the foremost modern drummers. He circled the globe with Zappa and contributed to numerous recordings, notably the acclaimed 1981 release You Are What You Is, 1986’s Jazz from Hell, 1988’s Broadway the Hard Way, and the multi-volume London Symphony Orchestra and You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore sets. Wackerman also cut a sequence of albums alongside guitarist Allan Holdsworth and supplied session drumming for an array of artists that includes Steve Vai, Andy Summers, Men at Work, Ed Mann, Albert Lee, Colin Hay, Dweezil Zappa, Tom Grant, and Barbra Streisand. Live work has taken him worldwide with James Taylor, John Patitucci, Joe Sample, and another former Zappa drummer, Terry Bozzio. Despite a crowded itinerary, he has issued occasional solo albums—Forty Reasons in 1991, The View in 1993, 2000’s Scream, and 2004’s Legs Eleven—while maintaining a schedule of international drumming clinics and authoring the instructional text Double Hi Hat Exercises for the Contemporary Drummer. Beyond writing most of the material for his own recordings, Wackerman has supplied compositions for Holdsworth and the Dennis Miller Show.