Vinnie Colaiuta

A producer once told Vinnie Colaiuta that if you threw Tony Williams

and Steve Gadd into a blender, Vinnie would be the tasteful

concoction. He laughs modestly while he shrugs off the compliment, but

it is probably an accurate description. Justifiably, he is the talk of

the town and drummers pack into the L.A. club where he plays three

nights a week. One drummer comments that Vinnie is the best drummer

he's ever seen and another puts it simply, repeatedly exclaiming,

"Monster!"

Innovative, colorful and tasteful, Vince Colaiuta began as did many,

playing pots and pans while growing up in Pennsylvania. After

graduating to toy sets with paper heads, his parents finally bought

him a semi-professional Japanese set which he'd play with the

neighborhood kids.

There was never any doubt that his instrument was the drums, even

though he also had an electric guitar and took organ lessons. In fact,

when he expressed the desire to play drums in the junior-high-school

band, the band director informed Vinnie that there were too many

drummers and he should take up another instrument. He played flute for

a year until the drummer vacated the seat into which Vinnie slipped.

Once the lessons began, Vinnie recalls, "I couldn't get enough of it.

I was real interested in music notation and rudiments and technique

whereas a lot of guys didn't dig that stuff. I learned real fast

because I was always practicing. I would go into English class and sit

in the back of the room with a Remo practice pad and practice

double-stroke rolls and get kicked out of class."

When he finally got a good drumset at age fourteen, he was extremely

grateful. "I was overjoyed when my parents bought me the set, because

up to that point, I had only been studying on the snare drum. When I

sat down at the set, though for some reason I didn't have any problem.

I just sat down and played, probably because of all those toy sets.

Coordination didn't pose much of a problem until I started getting

into the stage band and had to read drum parts with the foot and

everything. When I first saw that, it was a trip reading drumset

stuff--the hand, the hi-hat, the bass drum, independence and all of

that--but I just went and practiced." Drum corps, summer camps and a

succession of lessons followed, and after finishing high school, he

worked in local bands for a year before enrolling in Berklee, a

decision inspired by many of his classmates and a chance meeting with

Berklee student Steve Smith, who came through town playing with a big

band.