Paulinho Da Costa

Paulinho Da Costa is one of those guys that was a natural at his profession.  He was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and by the age of five, Paulinho was tapping everything he could get his hands on, exploring the different sounds.  As a teenager, Da Costa traveled throughout the world as a member of several music groups.  But when he came to America, the immensely-talented percussionist struck gold.

Da Costa has become of the premier session musicians of all-time, and certainly the top percussionist.  He has lent his talent to over 400 artists, from Kenny Rogers to Burt Bacharach, from Quincy Jones to Alice Cooper and appeared on dozens of some of the top albums in music history (including Seal’s debut, “Off The Wall”, the all-time #1 “Thriller”, “Bad” and “Dangerous” for Jackson, “Sleepwalk” by Larry Carlton, debut albums by Janet Jackson, Richard Marx, Whitney Houston and Wilson Phillips, Lionel Richie’s self-titled debut and “Can’t Slow Down”, “The Broadway Album” by Barbra Streisand, “USA for Africa”, “Like A Prayer” and “True Blue” by Madonna, the first two albums for Richard Marx, “Midnight In San Juan” by Earl Klugh, “The Colour of My Love” by Celine Dion, “Hell Freezes Over” by the Eagles “The Look of Love” by Diana Krall, “Chicago 17”, and many more.   

 Paulinho has been invited to contribute to box office hits such as Saturday Night Fever, Footloose, Flashdance, Four Weddings and a Funeral, An Officer and a Gentleman, Ice Age, Mission:  Impossible III, Night Shift, The Lost World:  Jurassic Park, The Color Purple, Arthur, Against All Odds, Taps, The Thomas Crown Affair, There’s Something About Mary, Trading Places, What Women Want, The Wiz and over 100 other films.    His music is feature on TV shows such as ER, The Drew Carey Show and Knots Landing.

Whether it’s a commercial, television shows, movies or CD’s, Paulinho’s amazing work is being heard by you on a daily basis.  He now plays the following:  conga drums, tumbadoras, bongos, timbales, pandeiro, surdo, repenique, repique, caion, claves, American Indian drum, maracas, berimbau, atabaque, cuice, reco-reco, tamborim, ganza, chimes, wood percussion, cow bells, agogo bell, African agogo bell, triangles, caxixi, tambora, tantan, tarol, quiro, snare drums, chocalho, base drums, shekere, diembe, zabumba, log drums, whistles, samba whistle, guiro, rainmakers, tambourine, cabasa, dumbek, ceramic dumbek, afuche cabasa, cricket, flex-a-tone, clad bells, cymbals, bar chimes, bell trees,  African drums, finger cymbals, jaw bone, temple blocks, castanets, spoons, udu, doum doum, bougarabou, kora, keg drum, okanga, bata drums, talking drums, wood blocks, kokiriko, vibra slap, ashiko, shakers, gongs and the kettle drum.

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented Paulinho with its “Most Valuable Player Award” for three consecutive years and recently honored him with its “Musicians Emeritus Award”. 

Here are the artists who feature work by Da Costa: