Vinnie Colaiuta

Hey guys, i have a question. What do you think are some of Vinnies best recordings? I am starting to study him and really only know the zappa and megadeth stuff he did.
Thanks

Everybody knows Vinnies legendary playing on Joes Garage was stunning and his kit sounded so cool.

But also, on Zappa's Shut up and pLay yer Guitar. I always thought that stuff contained so many different drum ideas in just any given few seconds of all the jamming, that you could listen to it almost like a million times over and still dissect new drum ideas each time, to practice for years to come from just the wealth of all the complex stuff he was laying out. I think of it as a kind of Vinnie drum Bible.
 
In my opinion, Vinnie Colaiuta is the best drummer like ever
Better than Weckl, Gadd, Chambers. He's just always been ahead lol.
 
I for one cannot think of any drummer EVER that is/was as technically proficient as Vinnie. I saw a Jeff Beck concert with him on drums and he managed to play impossibly difficult grooves and fills the whole time and it rarely (only during solos of course) sounded like he was overplaying. Though he is the best (as far as I know), my "favorite" drummer would still have to be Danny Carey.
 
Hey guys, i have a question. What do you think are some of Vinnies best recordings? I am starting to study him and really only know the zappa and megadeth stuff he did.
Thanks

Check out Jeff Beck's "Live at Ronnie Scotts." Vinnie put some great stuff forward in that show, and his brushwork on "Cause We've Ended As Lovers" off of that album is superb.
 
His solo album is incredible as is Alan Holdsworth Secrets and many many others. He's played on thousands of albums. Does anyone else agree that he is the greatest all around drummer ever - or at least alive today?
 
I have been wondering about that for a while, but never really found out. however, if you are into sounds, I'd think that on the opener, A Thousand Years and Desert Rose it's definitely manu, especially in the way he comes in on Desert Rose. If it's otherwise i'd be surprised. Also, Ghost Story is pretty much Vinnie all over; just listen to the outro, you can't miss that ride. I am not so sure about Perfect Love Gone Wrong, but that and Tomorrow We'll See are probably Manu as well. I'd like to think After The Rain Has Fallen as Vinnie's, again, because of tones and the hat work just the overall feel. Does anyone actually play on Big Lie Small World? The time-sig veers towards Vinnie Territory hahaha. God, I love both these guys with Sting, man; it's taste to the max!


Ghost Story is actually played by Manu, and to me is the best drumming on the disc.
 
I've got a question re: Vinnie and his standing as far as past MD awards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinnie_Colaiuta

Wikipedia's page on Vinnie cites....

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.

While wiki content doesn't necessarily have to be true, it seems a bunch of other internet sites reference wiki's above stat, while I can't find anywhere on the MD site whether this is actually true.

For the record, I happen to be a big Vinnie fan, and was just curious how he's done in these polls over the past decades compared to his contemporaries -- has he won more MD readers poll awards than anyone else?

Is there a MD or alternate legit site (not wiki) that lists this information?

TIA.
 
Hey Folks,

Does anyone have any idea what kind of snare drum Vinnie used at the 2000 MD Festival? I know it's a Gretsch, and I'm assuming that it's a 5x14 chrome over brass. Anybody out there know for sure? That snare is killing! And has the nastiest crack! I want that sound!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
I love Vinnie Colaiuta's drumming. I have him with Sting, Herbie Hancock, and Alan Holdsworth. My dad even has him with Paul Anka. It's silly to say anyone is the best though. If you say that, you're turning music into a sport and a trade skill. It's not either of those. It is art. Musical art. Ability has no place here. Only creativity and sound. So to say someone doesn't understand Vinnie's drumming when it's not their cup of tea, is stupid. Music is not about understanding what someone is playing. If that were case drummer's like Virgil Donati, Dom Famularo, Marco Minneman, Jojo Mayer, and Thomas Lang would be at the top of the music world. They play the fastest, most complex things I have ever heard on the drumkit. But, Musicians avoid those drummers like the plague. When was the last time you heard about one of these guys playing a week at a famous club, or being on a great recording? You haven't, because music is not their priority. Drumming is. Playing 7 in one hand, 5 in the other and 32nd notes on the kick drums has no place in music. It doesn't matter.
I'm a student at Manhattan School Music. Where drummer's talk about music and people such as Adam Nussbaum, Jeff Watts, Steve Jordan, Brian Blade ,Bill Stewart, Gadd and Vinnie Colaiuta.
Still Vinnie is not the best. There is no best. If you think there is, you're not a musician and you don't get the art of music.
 
DrummingApril, that's just silly.

Would you call Mike Keneally a non-musician?

I used to think Marco was JUST a chops monster.

He's not. The dude can groove a rock tune just fine. Check out his work with Paul Gilbert on dang-near pop-tunes.

I will admit Vinnie is probably the sickest, most versatile drummer out there. To go from Zappa to Faith Hill (?????) and sound perfect in every context is amazing.

But don't go assuming things about the chops guys, cuz in at least this one instance, you're dead wrong.
 
It's silly to say anyone is the best though. If you say that, you're turning music into a sport and a trade skill. It's not either of those. It is art. Musical art. Ability has no place here. Only creativity and sound.
No, ability has a place here. To be able to express yourself properly, you have to be able to do so. If you wanna make amazing music in various styles, you have to work hard on your abilities (besides having some talent, which is another topic), as Vinnie did and does. Your creativity doesn't take you anywhere if you don't know how to translate it onto the instrument.
So to say someone doesn't understand Vinnie's drumming when it's not their cup of tea, is stupid. Music is not about understanding what someone is playing.
If that were case drummer's like Virgil Donati, Dom Famularo, Marco Minneman, Jojo Mayer, and Thomas Lang would be at the top of the music world.
I always get irritated when people start to put a bunch of drummers all into one box. Those are 5 individual drummers!
They play the fastest, most complex things I have ever heard on the drumkit. But, Musicians avoid those drummers like the plague. When was the last time you heard about one of these guys playing a week at a famous club, or being on a great recording? You haven't, because music is not their priority. Drumming is. Playing 7 in one hand, 5 in the other and 32nd notes on the kick drums has no place in music. It doesn't matter.
I strongly disagree. First of all, what is the top of the music world? Being known by as many people as possible? Playing at venues as big as possible? Making as much money as possible?
Second, you possibly contradict yourself: What if you just don't "understand" the drummers you mentioned?
Third, you do absolutely no justice to some of those 5 if you say music wasn't their priority. To be where they are, they have already played music for as long as your entire life probably.
Forth, why doesn't your beforementioned exercise have any place in music? Who says? Maybe in your music? And if not the exact exercise, then of course many other things that are based of 5 or 7 note groupings or both at the same time. Ask Indian musicians! Don't think music=western pop music!
Last, what's the difference between drumming and music? Who defines if "drumming" equals "music" or not?
I'm a student at Manhattan School Music. Where drummer's talk about music and people such as Adam Nussbaum, Jeff Watts, Steve Jordan, Brian Blade ,Bill Stewart, Gadd and Vinnie Colaiuta.
Then what? You seem to have forgotten to write the main part of your sentence.
Still Vinnie is not the best. There is no best. If you think there is, you're not a musician and you don't get the art of music.
There it is again: You say music is not about understanding what one's playing, but someone to whom Vinnie is the best doesn't get the art of music?

Important thing: Music is a language! Or better; music is a great bunch of languages! So it's certainly possible to "not understand" someone's music, because that certain language doesn't appeal to you, it doesn't touch you, maybe it doesn't even reach you.
By the way: there are some parameters which can enable us to discuss which drummers are "the best", in these parameters, or in what they do.
 
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