Chad Wackerman
Chad Wackerman (born March 25, 1960 in Long Beach , California ) is an American drummer . He became known in the 1980s through his collaboration with Frank Zappa . Today he works as a studio and touring musician.
Career
Wackerman comes from a musical family. The family - father a music teacher and drummer, mother a drummer, two brothers drummers, including Bad Religion and Avenged Sevenfold drummer Brooks Wackerman , another brother bassist - seemed to have had a huge impact on Chad Wackerman's musical journey. In 1978 he became aware of the jazz trombonist Bill Watrous , with whom he had his first major performances.
A bassist friend of mine made Wackerman aware in 1981 that Frank Zappa was looking for a new drummer as well as a bassist. Wackerman called Zappa and asked if he could audition. He got the job after a three day test that took him through different styles of popular music. The decisive factor here was also his firmness of notes, which was later to be of use to him when recording the two albums of the musically highly demanding Zappa orchestral pieces with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kent Nagano .
In the following seven years of close collaboration in the recording studio and on worldwide tours with Zappa, Chad Wackerman found the time to tackle further projects. For example with the British guitarist Allan Holdsworth , for whom he played drums in the studio and “on the road” until 1998 (six albums were made, including Road Games and Metal Fatigue ). He toured with the successful down-under pop ensemble Men at Work in 1985 and 1986. At that time he moved to Australia himself, where he lived for ten years.
Chad Wackerman's credits as a studio musician have names like Steve Vai , Andy Summers (formerly The Police ), Albert Lee , Colin Hay or Barbra Streisand . As a live drummer, he has been booked for tours by James Taylor , John Patitucci , Crusaders founder Joe Sample , ex-Zappa drummer Terry Bozzio and Steven Wilson .
style
Chad Wackerman has an extremely varied playing ability : he is just as much at home in tough rock grooves as in light and floating jazz feelings and also masters what lies in between. He was comfortable with the openwork rhythms typical of Zappa and also had an intuitive sense of which direction Zappa's solos would take next. Zappa biographer Barry Miles said: "A perfect accompaniment for every measure."
Discography (selection)
- Solo albums
- Forty Reasons - 1991
- The View - 1993
- Scream - 2000
- Legs Eleven - 2004
- Dreams Nightmares and Improvisations - 2012
- With other musicians
- Frank Zappa: Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch - 1982
- Frank Zappa: London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 1 - 1983
- Frank Zappa: Does Humor Belong In Music? - 1986
- Frank Zappa: Broadway the hard way - 1989
- Frank Zappa: The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life - 1991
- Frank Zappa: Make A Jazz Noise Here - 1991
- Allan Holdsworth: Road Games - 1981
- Allan Holdsworth: Sand - 1987
- Barbra Streisand: One Voice - 1987
- Andy Summers: Charming Snakes - 1990
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wackerman, Chad |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American drummer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 25, 1960 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Long Beach, California , USA |