Paulinho da Costa

Paulinho da Costa (, born Paulo Roberto da Costa on May 31, 1948) is a Brazilian percussionist. Beginning his career as a samba musician in Brazil, he moved to the United States in the early 1970s and worked with Brazilian bandleader Sérgio Mendes. He went on to perform with many American pop, rock and jazz musicians and participated in thousands of albums. ''DownBeat'' magazine call him "one of the most talented percussionists of our time." He played on such albums as Earth, Wind & Fire's ''I Am'', Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'', Madonna's ''True Blue'', Celine Dion's ''Let's Talk About Love'', hit singles and movie soundtracks, including ''Saturday Night Fever'', ''Dirty Dancing'' and ''Purple Rain'' among others. He has also toured with Diana Krall. He plays over 200 instruments professionally, and has worked in a variety of music genres including Brazilian, blues, Christian, country, disco, gospel, hip hop, jazz, Latin, pop, rhythm and blues, rock, soul, and world music. He was signed to Norman Granz's Pablo Records for three of his solo albums, ''Agora'', ''Happy People'' and ''Sunrise'', as well as ''Breakdown''. Da Costa received the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' Most Valuable Player Award for three consecutive years. He also received the Musicians Emeritus Award. Provided by Wikipedia