Mike Barone was born in Detroit in Michigan on December 27, 1936 and began playing trombone at age 12. Both Mike and his brother Gary were taught by their father, Joe Barone, who played trumpet with the Bob Crosby Orchestra and many other big bands from the 1920s through the 1960s.

Mike graduated from Brush High School in Cleveland, Ohio in 1954 and studied trombone, guitar and arranging until 1956, when he was accepted into the West Point Army Band. There he studied trombone with Louis Van Haney of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. After his West Point stint, Mike was stationed in Germany, where he was with Special Services and also formed his first Jazz big band, touring service clubs through Europe.

In 1959, Mike attended Valley College in Van Nuys, California and left school to tour with the Sy Zentner and Louis Bellson Orchestras. Mike spent many years working with Louie and Pearl Bailey, touring, recording and arranging for the band. In 1962, Mike recorded Lalo Shifrin's New Continent, which was performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Dizzy Gillespie's Quintet. The next few years were spent performing and recording with Dick Grove, Pete Jolly, Gabor Szabo, Oliver Nelson and many others. During this time, Mike also played with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra and many of his arrangements were recorded by Gerald and other artists.

Mike also performed as a session musician for several film and TV soundtracks, including Harper and Up The Down Staircase, as well as the lead trombone part of the Mission Impossible theme on the original TV series.

In 1964, Mike started his own big band which was featured at Donte's Jazz Club from 1966 to 1969. After hearing some of Mike's charts, Doc Severinsen asked Mike to send some charts to New York for the NBC Tonight Show band. This started a twenty-three year relationship with Doc and the Tonight Show Band, for which he wrote over 300 original compositions and arrangements. Two of these, "Peachy" and "Superslick," were used as ending themes of the show for years. Other work in Los Angeles included and arranging and composing for television and movies, such as Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Rocky Three and the Academy Awards Show.

Mike moved to Colorado in 1987, where he released an album on TBA Records featuring Ernie Watts. After spending six years in Colorado, he moved to Vancouver, Washington in 1993.

Mike moved back to the LA area in 1997 and formed a new big band, which has performed at the Jazz Bakery, Clancey's, Ken Poston Big Band Party and the Big Band Jazz Party in Palm Springs. Meanwhile Mike's old big band recording, Live at Donte's 1968, was released around 2000 by VSOP Records.

Mike wrote for the Academy Awards Show in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005. He still works occasionally as a sideman--most recently with Bud Shank.

The Mike Barone Big Band has released 6 CDs since 2005 on Rubarb Recordings, Mike's own independent label. They are:  Live 2005!, Metropole, By Request, Class Of 68, Flight Of The Bumblebee and Live 2005! Redux. Other releases by Rhubarb Recordings include Trombones Unlimited - Original Recordings, The Barone Brothers album Blues and Other Happy Moments and You Name It by Turquoise.

Mike is currently writing and planning his next big band CD. The band rehearses every Tuesday morning at the Musicians Union in Hollywood and is open to the public.