CHAD WACKERMAN

A phenomenally skilled jazz and rock drummer, Chad’s professional career began in 1978 with the Bill Watrous Refuge West Big Band. Since then he has amassed a remarkable body of work including a seven year association with Frank Zappa, with whom he toured the USA and Europe and recorded 27 albums including the London Symphony recordings.

He has also recorded 8 albums and toured with guitar legend Allan Holdsworth, played on the ‘One Voice’ album and video with Barbra Streisand, and recorded albums and toured with artists as diverse as James Taylor, Steve Vai, Andy Summers, Steven Wilson, Men At Work, Ed Mann, Albert Lee, Colin Hay, Dweezil Zappa, Pasqua/Holdsworth/Haslip/Wackerman Group, Terry Bozzio, Carl Verheyen, David Garfield,John Patitucci, Jennifer Batten, Joe Sample, Robbie Kreiger, Banned From Utopia and The World Drummers Ensemble (Bill Bruford, Luis Conte, Dou Dou Ndiaye Rose and Chad Wackerman) .

As a band leader and composer Chad has five critically acclaimed CDs: ‘Forty Reasons’, ‘The View’,  ‘Scream’,  ‘Legs Eleven’ and his latest release, ‘Dreams Nightmares and Improvisations’. Chad has written music for the television show ‘The Dennis Miller Show’, as well as composing music for Allan Holdsworth’s ‘Secrets’, ‘Wardenclyffe Tower’ and ‘Sixteen Men of Tain’ CDs. His trio has a performance DVD, ‘Hits Live’.

Chad is on the teaching faculty of drumchannel.com which is the premier website for drummers and as an Adjunct Professor at California State University Long Beach. He has recorded many masterclasses for drum channel and is especially known for his 30 episode series on the teaching system of Murray Spivack.

In 2014 Chad was voted #21 in Rolling Stone magazine’s readers poll for the ‘Best Drummer of All Time’ category.

Chad’s drumming combines the power and conviction of rock with the sensitivity and finesse of jazz. His playing is remarkably free of predictable patterns and licks, relying instead on invention and interplay with the musicians around him.