Musicians - Vinnie Colaiuta

Home > Listing Index > Musicians > Vinnie Colaiuta

	Musicians - Vinnie Colaiuta

Vinnie Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is a highly regarded American drummer currently based in Los Angeles. Originally from Pennsylvania, he began playing drums as a child and received his first full drum kit from his parents at the age of 14.

After attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year, Colaiuta relocated to Los Angeles and made a mediocre living playing with lounge bands. His break came in April 1978 at the age of 22, when he auditioned for Frank Zappa, an audition that involved performing the notoriously difficult piece entitled "The Black Page". The audition was successful and Colaiuta went on to work with Zappa as his principal drummer for studio and live performance until 1982. Colauita's performances on Zappa's albums Joe's Garage and Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar are considered by many drummers to be among the most astounding ever recorded. Joe's Garage was named one of the top-25 drumming performances of all time in a 1993 Modern Drummer article.

After leaving Zappa, Colaiuta went on to work with a long list of notable rock and pop artists, including Joni Mitchell, Barbra Streisand, Sandy & Junior and Chaka Khan. He has also appeared with many notable jazz musicians, including Chick Corea, Quincy Jones, the Buddy Rich Big Band and Buell Neidlinger.

With Sting

In 1990, Colaiuta successfully auditioned for the drum spot in Sting's touring band in support of his album The Soul Cages. Colauita remained as a member of Sting's band for the next seven years. He declined the offer to go out on the road for the Brand New Day tour in 1999. Colaiuta's studio work with Sting can be heard on Ten Summoner's Tales (1993), Mercury Falling (1996), three songs on Brand New Day (1999) and two songs on Sacred Love (2003). In September of 2003, Vinnie returned to Sting's touring lineup in a brief promotional tour of Sacred Love, but once again declined the offer to participate in the world tour.

Colaiuta released a self-titled solo recording in 1994. He remains one of the most in demand studio musicians.

Colaiuta has won a total of 18 'Drummer of the Year' awards from Modern Drummer magazine's annual reader polls. These include 10 awards in the 'Best Overall' category. Colaiuta was inducted into the Modern Drummer "Hall of Fame" in 1996.

More recently, Colaiuta toured with Faith Hill and recorded with the thrash metal outfit Megadeth on their album The System Has Failed.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Vinnie Colaiuta ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Vinnie Colaiuta; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Musicians - Vinnie Colaiuta

With Sting

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay