I just found out that one of the great Brazilian studio drummers, Camilo Mariano, passed away at the end of July.
Camilo is one of those players who never seemed to become a household name (at least not outside of Brazil), He didn't do much of the samba/jazz fusion like many of the other drummers we check out here on the blog, but rather was a first call samba session drummer. If you've checked out any samba at all, it's very likely you'll have heard his playing. Camilo appears on records by some of the biggest names in samba and MPB, including Tim Maia, Chico Buarque, Danilo Caymmi, Maria Rita, Beth Carvalho, Paulinho da Viola, Leny Andrade, Alcione, Dudu Nobre, and many more. Just check out his discography on Discos do Brasil and Allmusic.com as neither list is exhaustive. If you want to dig deep and play some real deal non-textbook book samba, Camilo is a great place to start.
