[1][2] Throughout his career, he has toured, recorded, and played with musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Carmen McRae, Chris Potter, Julian Lage, Brian Blade, and Pat Metheny.

[5] He began studying bass at age 11 after his older brother Jim, a drummer, said he "thought it would be cool to have another rhythm section instrument in the family.

"[3][5][6] At 13, he began studying with bassist Monty Budwig and played twice a week at a club in Pasadena, where he spent three years being mentored by musicians such as Jimmy Rowles.

[2][7] Colley toured extensively as a member of Herbie Hancock's working trio for five years in the early 2000s, periodically performing alongside other music groups such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

[5][2][4][11] Around this time, he began taking residencies[2] at institutions including the Banff Centre, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Vallekilde Folk High School.

[17] In the mid-2000s, Colley recorded projects with Chris Potter, Abbey Lincoln,[10] Luciana Souza,[2][18] Kenny Werner,[19][20] Adam Rogers, and Donny McCaslin.

[7] The album was recorded with a quartet including Ralph Alessi, Craig Taborn, Bill Frissell, and Brian Blade with appearances by David Binney, Jason Moran, Adam Rogers, Gregoire Maret, and Antonio Sánchez.

[6][26] During the summer of 2010, he released Empire, an album entirely of original compositions, on CAM Jazz with longtime collaborators Frissell, Alessi, Blade, and Taborn.

[32] He performed with Joshua Redman on his Still Dreaming tour in 2017[35] and accompanied Luciana Souza alongside Chico Pinheiro at the Portland Jazz Festival in 2018.