Mike Kowalski was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. He started singing and playing piano at the age of three. His first professional engagement was playing boogie-woogie piano with Mel Torme on drums for a television pilot at the age of five, filmed on location at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco. At age ten, he was given a set of Slingerland Radio-King drums by actor Jack Webb of Dragnet, a noted jazz aficionado.
