Paolo Vinaccia was born March 27, 1954, in Camerino, in the Marche region of central Italy. By his own account, given in his official biography, he started playing in bars and clubs at the age of ten and had to be passed off as a dwarf to be allowed to gig. He went on to formal music study at Italian schools and universities before, in 1979, relocating to Norway to become the drummer for the Jonas Fjeld Band, a country and roots outfit built around singer-songwriter Jonas Fjeld. He stayed with the group for three years, then moved on to the Oslo Rhythm 'n' Blues Ensemble, and from there into four decades at the center of the Norwegian scene.

Vinaccia's discography, verified against the Discogs API, runs to more than 300 individual release credits, only a handful of them under his own name. The bulk of his career was built as a first-call drummer for other bandleaders, both inside and well outside jazz: Norwegian pop and folk artists such as Lillebjørn Nilsen, Jan Eggum, Kari Bremnes and Sissel Kyrkjebø; children's records and film scores; and, at the center of it, a long run of ECM and Nordic-jazz sessions. He recorded repeatedly with guitarist Terje Rypdal, appearing on Skywards (1997, with Palle Mikkelborg, David Darling and Jon Christensen), Vossabrygg (2006, a large-ensemble tribute to Miles Davis's Bitches Brew recorded live at Vossajazz) and Crime Scene (2010, a commission for the Bergen Festival recorded with the Bergen Big Band). His longest-running jazz association was with bassist Arild Andersen, whom he backed on Arv (1994), the film scores Kristin Lavransdatter and Kristin Og Erlend (both 1995), Hyperborean (1997) and Electra (2005, a theater score for a Greek-tragedy production, recorded across studios in Oslo, Copenhagen, Montpellier and Athens). That partnership became a standing trio with Andersen and Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith, billed as the Arild Andersen Group, which recorded Live At Belleville (ECM, 2008, after a London Jazz Festival date the same year), Mira (ECM, 2014) and In-House Science (ECM, 2018, taped at Villa Rothstein in Bad Ischl, Austria).

As a leader, Vinaccia's catalogue is smaller but stylistically wide-ranging. 'Mbara Boom (1997) paired him with Andersen, saxophonist Tore Brunborg and the Sardinian vocal group Il Coro Di Neoneli. Joko (2002, ACT) was billed to the Miki N'Doye Orchestra with Vinaccia, pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, kora player Solo Cissokho and Jon Balke, an African-jazz crossover project. Nomad (2005) co-billed him with Hungarian guitarist Ferenc Snétberger and Arild Andersen. Very Much Alive (2010, Jazzland) was a live box set under his own name with Rypdal, Mikkelborg, Wesseltoft and keyboardist Ståle Storløkken. Elastics (2011) paired him with brothers Ole and Per Mathisen, and Rathkes Gate 12:21:58 (2017) and The Maze (2017) were both quartet dates with guitarist Jacob Young and saxophonist Bendik Hofseth, the latter also featuring American vibraphonist Mike Mainieri. Dommedag Ifølge Paulus and Mystery Man (both 2018, C+C Records) were later leader releases, and Live At Rockefeller (2018) documented Heavy Gentlemen, a blues-rock side project distinct from his jazz work.

Vinaccia received the Gammleng-prisen in 1997, in the studio-musician category, one of Norway's honors for working musicians across popular and folk genres. In 2019, as he was in the final months of a nearly ten-year illness with pancreatic cancer, the Oslo Jazzfestival brought forward its own Ellaprisen, an honorary award normally presented during the festival in August, and presented it to him early at his home. He died in Oslo on July 5, 2019. The Italian embassy in Oslo, in its public statement on his death, described him as a representative of Italy's jazz culture living and working in Norway, and extended condolences to his family and friends in both Norway and Italy.

Vinaccia's drumming sat at the meeting point of Norwegian jazz's ECM-associated acoustic tradition and a rock and fusion sensibility built up over decades of session work outside jazz altogether. With Arild Andersen he played inside the spacious, folk-song-rooted post-bop that has defined much of the bassist's ECM catalogue, while his long tenure with Terje Rypdal put him in a harder-edged, guitar-driven fusion setting, including Vossabrygg's explicit nod to Miles Davis's electric period. His own leader dates lean further into that fusion identity while also reaching outward, toward the Sardinian vocal tradition on 'Mbara Boom and West African kora on Joko, reflecting a career-long willingness to work across genre lines rather than stay inside a single jazz idiom.