Michael Shrieve Day

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. Shrieve was the second youngest musician to perform at Woodstock in 1969, being aged 20. His drum solo during “Soul Sacrifice” in the Woodstock film has been described as “electrifying”, even if he considers his drum solo during “Soul Sacrifice” in 1970 at Tanglewood better.

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, England 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).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqZceAQSJvc

Share this post

Leave a Comment