Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro Carlos de Oliveira, better known as Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro, is a Brazilian

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

best known for playing the

pandeiro The pandeiro () is a type of hand frame drum popular in Brazil. The pandeiro is used in a number of Brazilian music forms, such as samba, choro, coco, and capoeira music. The drumhead is tunable, and the rim holds metal jingles (''platinelas'' ...

, a tunable

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called " zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, tho ...

, played with a different technique than in North American music, and is one of the instrument's major proponents.

Biography

Carlinhos grew up in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

in the 1940s, and was immersed in

samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havi ...

. Carlinhos took up the pandeiro at age seven, starting with one of his mother's cake pans. He visited the favelas to absorb samba styles, particularly at one of the greatest samba schools,

GRES Estação Primeira de Mangueira GRES may refer to: * GRES (power station), a Russian term referring to a condenser type electricity-only thermal power station * '' Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba'' (Recreative Guild Samba School), an acronym used by Brazilian Samba schools S ...

. Carlinhos would join in during rehearsals, and he soon came to the attention of Mangueira's legendary singer, Jamelão, who invited Carlinhos to become a performing member of Mangueira, a high honor. Carlinhos's pandeiro playing became quite theatrical, with unprecedented juggling and stunts (known as ''malabarismo''). Soon Carlinhos was performing professionally, working with some of the most important musicians and composers in Rio. In 1966, Brazil held a national contest to find the country's best pandeiro player. Carlinhos out-performed 500 other players to win the first "Golden Tambourine" award, thereby becoming known as ''Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro''. With this recognition, Carlinhos represented Brazil in performances before the Japanese royal family, the Swedish royal family, and also in a command performance for

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

and

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

of England. Carlinhos has had a wide-ranging career as a percussionist, appearing in Brazilian films, on Brazilian television, and performing around the world with artists including

Herbie Mann Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet (inclu ...

, Sergio Mendes, Sadao Watanabe,

Ed Thigpen Edmund Leonard Thigpen (December 28, 1930 – January 13, 2010) was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with the Oscar Peterson trio from 1959 to 1965. Thigpen also performed with the Billy Taylor trio from 1956 to 1959. Biograp ...

Toots Thielemans Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for his chromatic harmonica playing, as well as his guitar and whistl ...

Martinho da Vila Martinho da Vila (born February 12, 1938) is a Brazilian singer and composer who is considered to be one of the main representatives of samba and MPB. He is a prolific songwriter, with hundreds of recorded songs across over 40 solo albums. He a ...

Beth Carvalho Elizabeth Santos Leal de Carvalho (May 5, 1946 – April 30, 2019), known professionally as Beth Carvalho, was a Brazilian samba singer, guitarist, cavaquinist and composer. Biography Carvalho was raised in a middle-class family in Rio de ...

, and

Maria Bethânia Maria Bethânia Viana Teles Veloso (; born 18 June 1946) is a Brazilian singer and songwriter. Born in Santo Amaro, Bahia, she started her career in Rio de Janeiro in 1964 with the show "Opinião" ("Opinion"). Due to its popularity, with perform ...

. Carlinhos married an American singer in 1983, moved to Hawaii, and raised a family. For the last three decades, he has led parades, performed with numerous American samba bands, and taught classic Rio-style samba to thousands of students. Today, Carlinhos lives in Los Angeles, performing nationally and teaching locally, at th
18th Street Arts Center
in Santa Monica. He is a recipient of awards from th
Durfee Foundation
th
Alliance for California Traditional Arts
and the Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles. Carlinhos is a recipient of the 2011

National Heritage Fellowship The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's ...

awarded by the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. The book,
How to Play Pandeiro Like Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro
" by Simon Carroll was published on March 26, 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pandeiro de Ouro, Carlinhos Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Musicians from Rio de Janeiro (city) Afro-Brazilian people Brazilian percussionists National Heritage Fellowship winners Brazilian emigrants to the United States