Ernie Hackett

Drummer Ernie Hackett, son of cornetist Bobby Hackett, died December 23, 2025. He was a New York based musician and an important chronicler of his family’s place in mid-century jazz. Active on the traditional-jazz scene himself, he was later known for his firsthand recollections of musicians and venues surrounding his father,

Hackett grew up in a musical household shaped by his father’s career and the social world of jazz, with family roots spanning Providence, Jackson Heights, Cape Cod, and New York. In later interviews, he described a childhood marked by both warmth and instability, recalling his parents’ resilience and a home that welcomed musicians from Bobby Hackett’s circle. He was introduced to the drums as a child, famously shown how to hold sticks by George Wettling, and after a brief detour into rock guitar in high school, returned to percussion as his primary instrument.

In his late teens Hackett left school and began learning music on the bandstand, periodically joining his father’s groups from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s. He played one-nighters and club dates throughout New England and the Northeast, including engagements in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and at the New York World’s Fair. Following Bobby Hackett’s death, Ernie settled in New York City, becoming part of the circle around Eddie Condon’s and Jimmy Ryan’s, where he worked with traditional jazz musicians spanning generations.

Beyond his own performing career, Hackett became an essential keeper of the Hackett family story. His extended 2021 interview for The Syncopated Times and related conversations on Michael Steinman’s Jazz Lives offered vivid, unvarnished portraits of musicians such as Vic Dickenson, Papa Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, and Frank Sinatra, along with a nuanced account of his father’s life, personality, and associations, including Bobby Hackett’s work with Jackie Gleason. Hackett also supplied detailed recollections for biographical and institutional accounts of his father, helping shape modern understanding of Bobby Hackett’s musical values and working life.