Michael Shrieve
Michael Shrieve (born July 6, 1949) is an American drummer, percussionist, and composer. He is best known as the drummer of the rock band Santana, playing on the band's first seven albums from 1969 to 1974. At age 20, Shrieve was the second youngest musician to perform in Woodstock.
Also recorded as Mike Shrieve
Michael Shrieve

Joe Mabel on Flickr as Joe Mabel from Seattle, US · Joe Mabel · OK Hotel Reunion - Michael Shrieve 03 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1949. · San Francisco.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- composer, percussionist and musician.
- Education
- Junípero Serra High School.
- Languages
- English.
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Michael Shrieve (born July 6, 1949) is an American drummer, percussionist, and composer. He is best known as the drummer of the rock band Santana, playing on the band's first seven albums from 1969 to 1974. At age 20, Shrieve was the second youngest musician to perform in Woodstock.
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Michael Shrieve (born 1949) is a composer, musician and percussionist, of American nationality. The composer was born in San Francisco.
Michael Shrieve was educated at Junípero Serra High School. The composer is a member of Novo Combo and Santana. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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In this article
Biography
Biography
His drum solo during "Soul Sacrifice" in the Woodstock film has been described as "electrifying", although he considers his solo during the same piece in 1970 at Tanglewood the superior performance.
Shrieve was born and grew up in Redwood City. Shrieve's first full-time band was called Glass Menagerie, followed by experience in the house band of an R&B club, backing touring musicians including B.B. King and Etta James. At 16, Shrieve played in a jam session at the Fillmore Auditorium, where he attracted the attention of Santana's manager, Stan Marcum. When he was 19, Shrieve jammed with Santana at a recording studio and was invited to join that day. On August 16, 1969, Santana played the Woodstock Festival, shortly after Shrieve's twentieth birthday, but before the release of their eponymous first album (1969). He remained with Santana for Abraxas (1970), Santana III (1971), Caravanserai (1972), Welcome (1973), Borboletta (1974) and the live Lotus (1974). He co-wrote four of the tracks on Caravanserai, as well as co-produced the album. Shrieve left the original Santana band to pursue solo projects. He moved to London to record the 1976 album Automatic Man with guitarist Pat Thrall, bass guitarist Doni Harvey and keyboardist Todd Cochran (billed as Bayete). While in London Shrieve was part of the fusion supergroup Go with Stomu Yamashta, Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola and Klaus Schulze, releasing two studio albums, Go (1976) and Go Too (1977), and the live album Go Live from Paris (1976). He played in the band Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve (with Sammy Hagar, Neal Schon, and Kenny Aaronson). Later, he played drums on (former Supertramp member) Roger Hodgson's first solo album, In the Eye of the Storm. From 1979 to 1984, Shrieve collaborated as a percussionist in Richard Wahnfried, a side project of Klaus Schulze (another drummer turned electronic composer) while recording with Schulze his own first "solo" album of electronic music, Transfer Station Blue, in 1984. Shrieve was also credited for playing percussion on the 1980 album Emotional Rescue by the Rolling Stones and in 1984, he played on Mick Jagger's She's the Boss album. When Jagger, Nile Rodgers and Shrieve were mixing the album at The Power Station in New York City, Jaco Pastorius invited Shrieve for a recording session downstairs. This recording remains unreleased. In 1997, Shrieve joined former Santana musicians Neal Schon, Gregg Rolie, José "Chepito" Areas, Alphonso Johnson, and Michael Carabello to record Abraxas Pool. Shrieve has also collaborated with David Beal, Andy Summers, Steve Roach, Jonas Hellborg, Buckethead, Douglas September, Freddie Hubbard and others. He has served as a session player on albums by Todd Rundgren and Jill Sobule. In 2004, Shrieve appeared on the track "The Modern Divide" on the Revolution Void album Increase the Dosage. The album was released under a Creative Commons license. As of April 2010, Shrieve lives in Seattle, Washington, where he plays in a fusion jazz group, Spellbinder, with Danny Godinez, Joe Doria, Raymond Larsen, and Farko Dosumov. Shrieve has composed music for several films, including Paul Mazursky's Tempest and Apollo 13. Shrieve currently plays a DW Collector's Series drum set and recently joined the Istanbul Agop cymbals family. He has played a variety of other drum sets in the past, including sets by Camco, Premier and Ludwig, the latter visible in the Woodstock footage. He also played both Zildjian and later Paiste cymbals in his early days before becoming a longtime Sabian user.
Drummer
Drummer
(This is a partial discography.) (1969) with Santana — Santana (1970) with Santana — Abraxas (1971) with Santana — Santana III (1972) with Santana — Caravanserai (1973) with Santana — Love Devotion Surrender (1973) with Santana — Welcome (1974) with Santana — Borboletta (1976) with Automatic Man — Automatic Man (1976) with Go/Stomu Yamashta — Go (1979) with Richard Wahnfried — Time Actor (percussion) (1980) with Pat Travers Band — Crash and Burn (percussion) (1981) with Klaus Schulze - Trancefer (percussion) (1981) with Novo Combo — Novo Combo (1981) with Richard Wahnfried — Tonwelle (1982) with Novo Combo — Animation Generation (1983) with Klaus Schulze - Audentity (EEH Computer/Simmons Drums) (1984) with Richard Wahnfried — Megatone (percussion) (1984) with Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve (HSAS) — Through the Fire (1984) with Roger Hodgson — In the Eye of the Storm (1988) with Steve Roach — The Leaving Time (1989) with Freddie Hubbard - Times Are Changing (1993) with Jonas Hellborg and Buckethead — Octave of the Holy Innocents (1995) with Shawn Lane, Jonas Hellborg, Bill Frisell & Wayne Horovitz — Two Doors (1997) with ex-Santana members — Abraxas Pool (2004) with Revolution Void — Increase the Dosage (one track) (2016) with Santana — Santana IV
Composer
Composer
(1971) If I Could Only Remember My Name (David Crosby, one track) (1984) Transfer Station Blue (with Kevin Shrieve & Klaus Schulze, recorded 1979–83) (1986) In Suspect Terrain (EMC 8100) (1988) The Leaving Time (with Steve Roach) (1989) Big Picture (with David Beal) (1989) Stiletto (with Mark Isham, David Torn, Andy Summers, & Terje Gewelt) (1994) Fascination (with Bill Frisell & Wayne Horvitz) (1995) Two Doors (Door 1 with Jonas Hellborg & Shawn Lane) (Door 2 with Bill Frisell & Wayne Horvitz) (2005) Oracle (with Amon Tobin) Available only on iTunes (2006) Drums of Compassion (with Jeff Greinke, Jack DeJohnette, Zakir Hussain, & Airto Moreira)
Producer
Producer
(1998) Douglas September — Ten Bulls (producer) (2007) AriSawkaDoria — Chapter One (coproducer) (2009) Sam Shrieve — "Bittersweet Lullabies" (producer)
Filmography
Filmography
Shrieve makes a very brief appearance in the film Gimme Shelter (1970), explaining the scenes of violence that occurred at the Altamont free concert to Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh. Shrieve appeared in the 1970 documentary called Woodstock: The Director’s Cut, performing a drum solo during Santana's performance of “Soul Sacrifice.”

American band Santana in 1969, featuring their "classic" lineup that performed at Woodstock. No copyright markings on the photo.
Distributed by Columbia Records · Worthpoint Immediate (News Center Maine)
Honors
In 1998 Shrieve was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his work with Santana. In March 2011, Rolling Stone magazine readers picked The Best Drummers of All Time: Shrieve ranked No. 10.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Drummerworld.com. Michael Shrieve bio.
- 2.Cianci, Bob. Great Rock Drummers of the Sixties. Hal Leonard. 215. July 1, 2006. 0-634-09925-6.
- 3.A Conversation with Michael Shrieve. Life. August 2, 2019.
- 4.Devivo, Darren. Santana: Throwback Thursday 1969 WFUV. wfuv.org. August 15, 2019.
- 5.Jim McCarthy. Michael Shrieve Intro Speech by Jim McCarthy.
- 6.Kugiya, Hugo. Legendary Woodstock drummer Michael Shrieve now plays in Fremont. Seattle Times. 2009-08-14.
- 7.Ultimate Santana. Michael Shrieve: Original Santana drummer.
- 8.McCarthy, Jim. Voices of Latin rock: people and events that created this sound. Hal Leonard. 184–187. November 1, 2004. 0-634-08061-X.
- 9.The Chico Enterprise Record. Music review: Guitarist Neal Schon journeys to El Rey Theatre.
- 10.Sierra, Jose. A Conversation with Michael Shrieve - Part 2. Moonflower Café.
- 11.Thodoris, Από. Interview: Michael Shrieve. Hit Channel. January 29, 2015.
- 12.AllMusic.
- 13.Revolution Void. Revolution Void - Electronic Breakbeat Jazz.
- 14.IMDB. IMDB credit list.
- 15.The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Santana Biography. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
- 16.Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone Readers Pick Best Drummers of All Time. February 8, 2011.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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