Michael Barsimanto

Michael Barsimanto PortraitMichael says his life’s passion is playing drums.
He started very young, was studying seriously by the time he was in high school, was playing professionally by the time he was in college, and left college early to play with Freddie Hubard. 

I first saw Michael playing with Jean Luc Ponty in the mid 1990’s at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco.  I had actually been disappointed to learn that Rayford Griffin was not playing the tour, and then I heard Michael play and was blown away by his pinpoint accurate time and fluid musicality.

Michael Barsimanto is a true artist on the drums.  He is in touch with the rhythms of life, music in the air, in nature, and sounds. The rhythm & pulse of traffic, breathing, footsteps of folks walking past, the songs of birds in the air.  There is a constant rhythm, a complex, odd-time rhythm, going on around us all the time and Michael strives to maintain a link to the constant pulse of rhythm beating within all of our lives.  His connection to this pulse flows throughout of his playing.

Michael has had the pleasure of working with many great musicians, including:

Michael Barsimanto in the Studio

Here are a few of the many great albums that Michael has recorded: