Steve on Vinnie
MS
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 polyrhythms 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 drumhead 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 rototoms 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."
mike macken
yea i have heard Frank was always amazed by Vinny and Bozzio thought
he was the "shit" (meant in a good way).
To this day i STILL SWEAR there are things Bozzio can play that even
Vinny can't.
Who knows ?
IMO it might even be a case of Vinny being slightly better and Bozzio
only slightly surpassing him AFTER MANY YEARS of maturing.
miRthkon
"When I left Frank's band, I thought I was the shit. Then Frank went
out and got Vinnie Coliauta."
Before I grew more familiar with the Vinnie Era, I thought Bozzio
couldn't be topped as far as technical facility. His astonishing
skills were so impressive that I overlooked what I now feel is a
curious (though only very slight) lack in overall feel. Also, I found
his hamminess, along with O'Hearn, a little tiresome after a while.
The SNL performance of 'The Purple Lagoon' is a prime example of this.
I've seen a number of polls/forum entries that seem to indicate the
most popular FZ rhythm section is Bozzio/O'Hearn. IMHO, the
Coliauta/Barrow combo is quite possibly the greatest rhythm section to
have ever existed.
While watching the 'We Don't Mess Around' performance of 'Baby Snakes',
when there's a drum break that goes into the "But Maybe I Think / That
is What Keeps them in Sync' section, where the drums are just playing a
four-on-the-floor backbeat, I did a major double take. It was THE MOST
infectious feel/groove I'd ever heard in my life. Ever since then I've
been tracking down every Vinnie-era boot in existence. Vinnie's feel
is simply staggering. The "We Don't Mess Around" video is also great
to see close-ups of Vinnie's face when he's playing. Seriously, the
guy looks like he's on about 5 tabs of ecstasy playing that music.
Simply priceless.
If memory serves, the Fall '80 Dallas version of 'Keep It Greasey'
features another break where Vinnie is just playing 1/4-notes on the
kick drum. Call me crazy, but that has got to be some of the funkiest
2 bars of 1/4-notes I've ever heard in my life. Who'da thunk such a
simple, un-syncopated thing could be dripping with such funktified
slime?!
There are some great videos of Vinnie at http://www.drummerworld.com ,
along with 100's of others, including Morgan Agren, who was slated to
replace Wackerman in the band that never was, or so I've been told. If
I'm wrong I'm sure Charles will correct me. ;-P
Gary
used to, y'know the thing where one guy plays the left hand part and
the other guy plays the right hand part on the same instrument and the
audience goes "wow".
Christopher Rivers
@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
To paraphrase Frank, the definition of art is the frame. Andy Warhol did a
silkscreen reproduction of Campbell's Soup can and the audience went,
"wow."
Lerch
mind.
Holy shit,
Lerch
Lerch
Still Holy Shit,
Lerch
mike macken
wrote:
>I've read a Bozzio quote somewhere saying something along the lines of:
>"When I left Frank's band, I thought I was the shit. Then Frank went
>out and got Vinnie Coliauta."
>
with all due respect i think my version is more accurate for the
following reasons:
I had the grand fortune to meet TERRY and speak with him twice......he
is the most humble, unpretentious person you could imagine..in fact he
practically apologozed to me after a show he could have played better.
Terry having the ego to think he was "the shit" just does NOT fit his
persona......these 2 guys are probably both the 2 or 3 greatest
drummers to hit the scene in the last 30 years........Frankly i
believe it was Terry who thought Vinny was "the shit".
I honestly believe these 2 guys are about the only guys who could
share a stage with Buddy Rich and not just get blown outta there.
is Vinny faster yea......is he a better sight reader most
probably.....does Terry play with more feel/soul i think so.
Terry has progessed expodentially since his Zappa days if you haven't
seen him in the last 7 or so years you've been jipped.
I'de put both Terry and Vinny up there with guys like Buddy Rich, Max
Roach etc etc.......how Zappa managed to find 2 phenoms in such
short order is really a credit to his networking/eye for talent.
Milhouse Authentico
> On 17 Jan 2006 17:09:41 -0800, "miRthkon" <wsch...@mirthkon.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>I've read a Bozzio quote somewhere saying something along the lines of:
>>"When I left Frank's band, I thought I was the shit. Then Frank went
>>out and got Vinnie Coliauta."
>>
>
>
> with all due respect i think my version is more accurate for the
> following reasons:
> I had the grand fortune to meet TERRY and speak with him twice......he
> is the most humble, unpretentious person you could imagine..in fact he
> practically apologozed to me after a show he could have played better.
> Terry having the ego to think he was "the shit" just does NOT fit his
> persona
Granted, at the time he was all of 22 or 23 years old and (as rumor
later had it) developed a little bit of a fondness for the nose candy,
so is it really that unbelievable?
--
Milhouse Guidry of the mWo
Sometime king of alt.pro-wrestling.dx
I have to pick up a frickin' pie at nine in the morning.
"I apologize and recognize the validity of your argument."
--"Whit Sterling", in one of the more absurdly unlikely
statements in the history of Usenet.
mWo. It's not just the coolest, it's fa lyfe, so survey says
whether you like it or don't like it, never E-e-e-ver tell
me he did *not* just SMELL what mWo 3:16 reeks of.
pbuzb...@yahoo.com
Milhouse Authentico wrote:
> Granted, at the time he was all of 22 or 23 years old and (as rumor
> later had it) developed a little bit of a fondness for the nose candy,
> so is it really that unbelievable?
I could imagine someone not particularly arrogant or enamored of nose
candy believing in 1978 that Zappa wouldn't have had an easy time
finding another drummer who could play "The Black Page."
Pat Buzby
Chicago, IL