Career
He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1996. In 1977, he relocated with the band to Los Los Angeles After leaving the band, he played with lounge bands.
His next break came in April 1978, after auditioning for Frank Zappa.
The audition entailed performing "The Black Page". Colaiuta went on to work with Zappa as his principal drummer for studio and live performances.
He played on the successful Zappa albums Tinsel Town Rebellion, Joe"s Garage, and Shut Up "n Play Yer Guitar. Joe"s Garage was named one of the top-25 drumming performances of all time in a 1993 Modern Drummer article.
Editorial In 1990, Colaiuta successfully auditioned as drummer in Sting"s touring band in support of his album The Soul Cages.
He declined the offer to go out on the road for the Brand New Day tour in 1999 due to the considerable length of a typical Sting world tour. His studio work with Sting can be heard on,, three songs on and two songs on. On October 21, 2011, he rejoined Sting"s tour band for performing on the Back to Bass Tour.
Colaiuta released a self-titled solo recording in 1994, and still remains one of the most in demand studio musicians playing on countless albums film soundtracks, television and radio jingles.
These include 10 awards in the "Best Overall" category. In 2002, Colaiuta played on the soundtrack to Queen of the Damned where he reunited with fellow Zappa alumnus Terry Bozzio on the song "Slept So Long".
In 2004, Colaiuta played drums on the film score of Elektra as director Rob Bowman is a great fan of his. In 2006-2007, Colaiuta toured with Jeff Beck and Tal Wilkenfeld on bass, with Jason Rebello playing keyboards, in Eric Clapton"s Crossroads Guitar Festival.
He has recorded and performed with artists as diverse as country artist Faith Hill, whom he toured with and played on the albums Cry and Fireflies, thrash metal outfit Megadeth on their album The System Has Failed, actress Lindsay Lohan on her 2004 teen popular album Speak and jazz musician Herbie Hancock.