Mike was born in New York the son of an Australian war bride Lola Catalano and a NYPD police Chief Ferdinand Catalano. At age 7 he began studying classical piano. After studying privately for more than 10 years, playing in vario us popular bands on the Long Island circuit , Mike began studying at "The Five Towns College of Music." At college Mike studied theory and composition, listening to, and analyzing the music of composers like Gershwin, Cole Porter, Bill Evans and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Mike began writing is own music, and seeking out some of New York City's top Session musicians, for his early recordings, his first step was Dean Bailin, who had come to fame from the Rupert Holmes (Escape/ The Pina Colada song) period, as a top rated session guitarist, and Bailin productions experience, combined with Mike's writing, inspired Mike to recruit more musicians and begin making instrumental Jazz recordings, among them as Lou "Blue Lou" Marini, whom Mike had always been a fan of, from Lou's SNL and Blue's Brothers days, Mike met Lou at a Dr. John gig in the old Lone Star Cafe in NYC and invited him to do a recording session on some of Mike's new material which was a combination of Jazz, R&B, and even some Jobim influenced Boss Nova style music. One of Marini's old bandmates from his Blood Sweat and Tears days Rob Mclure, was invited to play bass, along with Marini, Mike, Dean Bailin and drummer Richard Crooks.
Jobim’s music had a profound influence on Mike, eventually Mike decided to travel to Brazil to record his own music in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the "Land of Jobim" . Mike sought out the local studio musicians in Rio, and happenned to meet two of the finest Nico Assumpcao (Bass) and Ricardo Silveira (guitarist). Mike explained to them his idea of combining the finest session guys from NYC with the guys from Rio would make a nice record. They took Mike under their wing in Rio and introduced him to all the top musicians in Rio and Mike began flying back and forth from Dean Bailins studio in New York to all the top studios in Rio de Janero. It was a fine array of talent rounded up step by step for this record to support Mike's piano and original music, Dean Bailin, Lou Marini, Alan (Mr. Fabulous) Rubin, Randy Brecker, Cornell Dupree,Mark Egan, Steve Gadd, and combining them with the Brazilians, Nico Assumpcao, Ricardo Silveira, Toninho Horta, Armando Marcal (father and son), Carlos Bala, Andre Tandetta, Cafe.The result was his debut album, "A Rio Affair" released on Polygram in Brazil. From New York funky groove tunes like "Groovin Along" to more boss-esque tunes like "The Reality" it was quite a well received album, and got alot of airplay in Brazil and Japan.

In the music business, always one thing leads to the unexpected. Mike always had a fascination with movie music, and tv theme music and had dabbled in some local cable tv themes and jingles right after college. Now in New York with A Rio Affair in his pocket, Mike met veteran Reporter Steve Dunleavy who had just started the Fox Television show A CURRENT AFFAIR (ACA) with Maury Povich. Dunleavy, had also been a huge Antonio Carlos Jobim fan and was explaining to Mike how they were having so much trouble getting rights to various songs for their new tv show, he invited Mike to submit some of his material for some of the stories on A Current Affair, and soon after Mike began scoring ALL the music for A Current Affair on a daily basis. Soon every major story that put that show on the map, (ACA was quite a phenomenon) was having Mike's music for underscore in a huge variety of styles of the major new stories of the day in a time when that show became the first and the #1 tabloid show with Maury Povich at the helm. Mike also gained well deserved recognition as a composer by composing over 200 pieces of theme and underscore music for Fox Television's hit show,"A Current Affair","The Reporters", "Good Day New York","Fox News," and "Carol Jenkins Live" as well as other shows for Fox.

In the mid 90's Mike started the Mike Catalano Group, with his New York contigentcy, Dean Bailin, Chris Parker, Mark Egan, and Lou Marini as the core band, and a variety of others stepping up to the plate such as Lou Soloff, Alex Foster, Tom Barney, and Donald Harrison and Toninho Horta appeared with the band from time to time. It was in this period that Drummer Chris Parker introduced Mike to bassist Will Lee, who subsequently co-produced Mike's new record, A Manhattan Affair.

Mike started recording A Manhattan Affair which Mike was determined to make a smooth jazz record, but of course including a bit of his passion of Brazillian grooves, and he and Will were huge fans of Brazilian Ivan Lins. Mike thought it would be interesting to do a kind of funky new version of the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic "Dindi" and they invited Ivan Lins to sing it. After singing the song Dindi on Mike's new record, Brazilian composer Ivan Lins, dug the New York sound, and had an idea to produce singer Jane Duboc in New York, and asked Mike to Exec produce it and put together his NY team. Mike called Will as co-executive producer, Rob Mounsey agreed to do all the charts and conducting of band and orchestra , and soon Ivan and company came to new york. They put together a great band with orchestra featuring Chris Parker, Steve Rodby, Romero Lumbambo, Lou Marini, Randy Brecker, with Arranger Mounsey on Piano. The resulting CD Jane Duboc's Sweet Lady Jane was produced. In fact Will Lee in addtion to co-exec producing thiswith Mike, Will wrote some beautiful lyrics to an Ivan Lins song on this record, the song is called "Evermore", a beautiful duet with Ivan Lins and Jane Duboc.

Mike’s new smooth jazz album "A Manhattan Affair", is the result of a collaboration with his friend and co-producer industry veteran Will Lee (Bassist/Arranger/Vocalist David Letterman Band,,etc..). On this album, Mike was excited to work with some of his favorite NY musicians/artists including NY Producer /arranger/synthist Rob Mounsey (Steely Dan, Michael Franks,, Natalie Cole, Aron Neville, Flying Monkey Orchestra,,etc.), as well as George Whitty (Brecker Brothers) , Chuck Loeb, Peter Erskine, Steve Gadd, Randy Brecker, Lou (Blue Lou) Marini, Jeff Mironov, Basheri Johnson and very special guest appearances by jazz great Bob James, and Legendary Brazilian Composer/Singer Ivan Lins singing one of Mike’s very favorite Jobim tunes "Dindi" (singing both the English and Portuguese versions).

Mike Catalano is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.