One unique aspect of the Spotlight Jazz concerts, at least in recent years, is a unique opportunity to hear directly from professionals as LAHS Director of Jazz and Orchestra Justin Padilla convenes a mini-talk show in the middle of the performance to allow the audience to hear directly from guest artists.
This year was no different, per se, except for the fact that among those being interviewed were the son and granddaughter of the man whose musical tree now stretches through generations of Los Al families.
Chad Wackerman, the legendary music teacher’s eldest son, spoke with emotion as he remembered his father.
Photo by Andrew Ficke
“He taught music for 66 years,” said Wackerman, noting that his dad’s ability to teach music was sidelined only by COVID. The elder Wackerman passed away towards the end of the COVID pandemic (August 2022).
“Towards the end, I remember one of my dad’s friends asking him about what he missed about teaching music,” his son said. “Everything,” was the late music teacher’s reply.
“My dad loved big band jazz,” said Chad Wackerman.
Wackerman said his dad started teaching at J.R. McGaugh Elementary school long before it became associated with the Los Alamitos Unified School District.
In those days, there were few or no resources to teach jazz to elementary school students. The late Wackerman had to call on friends in the profession to arrange music and soon organized a “Class Notes” fundraiser where his students could perform with professionals, his son said Saturday.
Photo by Andrew Ficke
“It was a great combination of what my dad started 50 years ago,” he said.
Wackerman is a professional drummer and the eldest of Chuck Wackerman’s four sons, Chad, Bob, John and Brooks, all of whom are professional musicians.
He said his dad started an elementary school jazz program in 1971. At 10 years old, Chad said he joined his dad’s first elementary school jazz band at McGaugh.
Ironically, the younger Wackerman did not learn directly from their dad, at least not in the beginning.
“My dad didn’t believe in teaching his own kids,” said Chad Wackerman, who is a world-class drummer.
The elder Wackerman, however, apparently had a plan. He sent his son to Louie Bellson, one of the greatest jazz drummers to ever slap the skins.
Bellson himself was too busy to teach but he sent Wackerman to his own teacher, where Wackerman said he, and his dad, learned much “from an amazing drum guru.” Wackerman said he ultimately had two teachers, one for technique and one for reading music.
In fact, he said Bellson, and other pros, came to play at the first-ever fundraising concert 50 years ago.
“He came and played with the kids. Kind of like we’re getting to do today. And you know, that stuff is super inspiring and builds our confidence in bands, and more individual confidence.”
Wackerman said his dad, although sufficiently skilled to become a professional, instead chose a different path.
“Rather than being a professional musician, he decided to teach kids jazz. Why not?” said Wackerman. “Dad’s passion for music was real…you just felt it in the room,” he said
“He was just incredibly, incredibly dedicated and brought joy and passion to the kids,” said Chad Wackerman Saturday.
“My origin story starts with Chuck,” said Sophia Wackerman James, Chad’s daughter and Chuck’s granddaughter.
She said her grandfather was the “musical patriarch of the family. He instilled a love of music in all of us,” she said.
“I think growing up you know, you were all playing around the house and stuff,” said James, constantly sitting in on sessions with Chuck, her dad and “I would come to every single concert.”
James, who attended Los Alamitos High School, said she ended up singing in the school’s famed Show Choir, got into the UCLA jazz program and ended up getting her bachelor’s degree in music and jazz.
“I kept saying I’m going to make music but like, jazz is not for me,” she laughed, “but I think I have secretly loved it this entire time.”
Photo by Andrew Ficke
James, who also announced that she has signed her first record deal, got national attention when she auditioned for the popular music television show American Idol during COVID. James made it to the top ten round.
“I got to meet a lot of really amazing, well-connected people,” she said. “I started doing a lot of writing and just sort of exploring as an artist,” she said.
Looking forward, James said while is interested in fusing pop and rock, she said jazz music instilled in her by her grandfather and dad will always remain, in some way, part of her career.
“I’m putting on my own stuff, trying to connect the jazz roots and you know, sprinkle a little bit of pop or a little bit of folk and rock and stuff. I want to see how far we can push those fusions together.”
For John Daversa, an accomplished and awarded musician, and music teacher himself, just simply participating in the Spotlight 50 jazz concert was pure inspiration.
“This is super cool to me, and I’m very honored to be part of this,” he said.
Photo by Andrew Ficke
“It definitely feels like a beautiful community. And it feels like a beautiful family that’s coming together. The most beautiful part is because it’s for the students,” said Daversa.
He said the event brought him back in years and invoked memories of his own school band days.
“It reminds me actually of being in middle school and being in high school. And I had similar experiences. I was very fortunate to be in band programs that were super supportive like this one,” he said.
“And as Chad was saying, these experiences as a young person, socially. If you take that, remember that you take that experience with you for the rest of your life, whether you become a professional musician, or you just take it with you in whatever walk of life you choose because it’s a sense of community as a sense of playing for somebody who’s bigger than any one individual. And in the way all of the social dynamics work. It’s really part of something that’s so much bigger than any one individual.”
