Milton Banana

Here's a video of Milton Banana, one of my favorite Brazilian drummers, performing near the very end of his life. I don't know how much he was slowing up chops-wise at this point, but the fundamentals of his musical approach are all seemingly intact. It's a great lesson in how to play form, and how not to get locked into just playing a Bossa Nova beat when playing Brazilian styles.



You can't really hear what he's doing with the bass drum— the very open, hands-oriented things he's playing certainly don't feel constrained by having to fit with the standard repetitive bass drum rhythm.