Vinnie Colaiuta: Master Drummer

Vinnie Colaiuta is a world-renown drummer, born in Pennsylvania and residing in Los Angeles. Now in his 50s, Vinnie’s been drumming since he was 14. He is most well-known for his impeccable chops, versatility and ingenuity. He is truly one-of-a-kind.

Vinnie has been involved with so many studio and live projects that I won’t bother to list them all here. Here is a small sampling of the incredible variety of artists who have turned to Vinnie for his signature approach to music: Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, Lee Ritenour, Michael Sembello, Paul Anka, Sergio Mendes, The Commodores, The Temptations, Eric Marienthal, John Patitucci, David Sanborn, Everything But The Girl, Duran Duran, Chick Corea, Ron Kenoly, Quincy Jones, Marcus Miller, Chris Botti, Sting, Faith Hill, Michael McDonald, Joe Cocker, James Taylor, Boyz II Men, Jeff Beck and many others.

Avedis Zildjian enlisted Vinnie to help design a flagship line of professional cymbals in 1990. The Zildjian A Custom cymbals were met with critical acclaim and adopted by drummers all over the world. They remain as some of the most popular cymbals ever created. Paired with a couple Zildjian K series cymbals, they are my personal favorite.

Vinnie’s great sound of mixing the K and A Custom cymbals was showcased on Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales. This is one of my all-time favorite albums by Sting and some of Vinnie’s best mainstream work. His musicality and odd-meter grooves are very inspiring.

I also really enjoy Vinnie’s work on Sting’s Soul Cages tour. I still own the VHS of an incredible show from that tour. Sting, Dominic Miller, David Sancious and Vinnie were really an incredible musical force during that tour. Very, very nice stuff there.

Here’s a great little story that illustrates the musical genius and proficiency of this legendary drummer. (Excerpt from Drum! Magazine, 2003, by Don Zulaica)

Steve Vai on Vinnie Colaiuta:

“I was just enamored with Vinnie. Back in the Frank days, his whole approach, when I heard Vinnie play, his phrasing – it satisfied something in my heart. It was easy to get certain rhythmic gratification from straight up-and-down-type players. Playing grooves, alternate grooves here and there. But Vinnie just came in and threw a wrench into the works. The guy is an alien. He was able to touch buttons with his sense of poly-rhythms that no one has ever done. Frank’s band was the perfect soundboard for that. I started transcribing his playing for The Frank Zappa Book. I mean, there’s five to six different notations for the hi-hat!” [laughs]

“I’ll tell you a really great Vinnie story. He’s one of the most amazing sight-readers that ever existed on the instrument. One day we were in a Frank rehearsal, this was early ’80s, and Frank brought in this piece of music called “Mo ‘N Herb’s Vacation.” Just unbelievably complex. All the drums were written out, just like “The Black Page” except even more complex. There were these runs of like 17 over 3 and every drum head is notated differently. And there were a whole bunch of people there, I think Bozzio was there.”

“Vinnie had this piece of music on the stand to his right. To his left he had another music stand with a plate of sushi on it, okay? Now the tempo of the piece was very slow, like “The Black Page.” And then the first riff came in, [mimics bizarre Zappa-esque drum rhythm patterns] with all these choking of cymbals, and hi-hat, ruffs, spinning of roto-toms and all this crazy stuff. And I saw Vinnie reading this thing. Now, Vinnie has this habit of pushing his glasses up with the middle finger of his right hand. Well I saw him look at this one bar of music, it was the last bar of music on the page. He started to play it as he was turning the page with one hand, and then once the page was turned he continued playing the riff with his right hand, as he reached over with his left hand, grabbed a piece of sushi and put it in his mouth, continued the riff with his left hand and feet, pushed his glasses up, and then played the remaining part of the bar.”

“It was the sickest thing I have ever seen. Frank threw his music up in the air. Bozzio turned around and walked away. I just started laughing.”

For numerous reasons, Vinnie Colaiuta is easily my favorite all-time drummer. I am continually impressed with his ability to play an incredible variety of styles while being true to the ‘Colaiuta sound’ and respecting the music. He is an American treasure; one-of-a-kind musical genius; drumming virtuoso. Vinnie, I salute you.