Paulinho da Costa

Paulinho da Costa is the kind of musician I admire most: the one whose name you only notice in the liner notes, yet whose hands quietly shape the warmth of a record. Coming up through samba in Rio and then crossing into the American scene alongside Sérgio Mendes, he became one of the most-recorded percussionists in popular music without ever needing the spotlight. To me that is the truest mark of mastery. He raises a track's pulse with a single shaker, and I find real dignity in his choice to serve the song rather than himself. A craftsman, plain and simple.

Name (English)

Paulinho da Costa

Name (Japanese)

パウリーニョ・ダ・コスタ

Reading

ぱうりーにょ・だ・こすた

Born

May 31, 1948 (age 78)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Rat

Origin

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Occupation

percussionist / jazz musician / musician

• Official sitehttps://paulinho.com
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulinho%20da%20Costa
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%91%E3%82%A6%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A7%E3%83%BB%E3%83%80%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q960660

Tags

• Rio de Janeiro
• percussionist
• jazz musician
• musician

Last updated

2026-06-24

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.