"EUROPE'S LEADING BRAZILIAN PERCUSSIONIST"

How I came to this music:

I was born in 1952 in Belo Horizonte, a city in Brazil north west of Rio. When I grew up, the radio played Brazilian popular music, Samba, a lot of Brazilian 'western' music, a lot of Rock and Roll and the Bossa Nova. It was the folkloric music from the north east which was fashionable and hooked me in, not the pop music. There was the street music, played in carnivals and music played by the Congados, which was a festival of music and drama in honour of a Catholic saint, but celebrated by Africans or Afro-Brazilians. The plays relate to medieval European wars and feature the King and Queen of Congo, ambassadors and the captain. It's done to drumming and it's fascinating. One saint, Nossa Senora de Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary), the patroness of all drummers, was commemorated the day I was born. On my birthday when I was a kid you'd always hear the drums outside as the Congados passed by. That's how my love of the drum developed. I came to England because my first wife was English. There weren't many Brazilians here in the early 80's but now there are loads. In 1984, I started the London School of Samba with Alan Hayman. It's still going on.

Where I play:

I've always been a freelancer doing loads of different things. I do gigs with my band Arakatuba which plays Brazilian music. We play a variety of styles from Samba to folk with a lot of input from jazz as well. We've performed at big festivals in the continent with Brazilian drummers, Dom Um Romao and Airto Moreira while here in England we've played with Rhythm Sticks, the annual world music festival at London's South Bank. I also do gigs with King Salsa which is Afro-Cuban music, and Mr Hermano which is a Latin band from Brighton. Occasionally I do some teaching at the Guildhall. Mainly I teach at Drumtech, a school for drummers in Acton, West London. I wrote the percussion course there. I do lots of workshops and one-offs in different places up and down the country. You have to keep your fingers in as many pies as possible otherwise you can't make it!When I'm in Rio, I love to play in small groups of 10 or 12 people especially at carnival. You go there at 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon around a corner near a bar where people are playing and singing. It goes on all night and you finish at 4 or 5 the next morning exhausted. Of course, you take breaks and turns and you have a drink. You go across to the sea and have a dive and dip and come back. It's fantastic! I love that. I'd rather have that than almost anything really.

A favourite song:

I wrote 'Riva' as a tribute to the great Brazilian percussionists. I mention about 35 different percussionists from past and present, a few samba schools and some afoches and blocos. The chorus goes, 'On the skin of the drum and on the sound of the berimbau, I pay my tribute to the Brazilian percussionists who have no equals in the world.' Guys like Nana Vasconcelos, Airto Moreira, Papete and Paolo Braga. There's Pascoal Meirelles who grew up in my neighbourhood called Gameleira. He was a great friend and inspiration. He was already in Rio playing with famous people when he was 16. There used to be lots of rehearsals at his house. Even Milton Nascimento would come round and play bass. I also mention a lot of new guys like the people from Uakti, a percussion group from my home town. Olli Saville and I overdubbed all the Brazilian percussion - berimbaus and surdos. The singer is Liliana, who lives in London and works with me from time to time. Mr Bongo wanted all the tracks on the CD to have names of Brazilian football players of the past so when he got to that track he chose the name Riva. I subtitled it 'Respecto' - respect!

Final word:

Now other samba schools have sprung up out of the London School of Samba like Quilombo do Samba and Paraiso. I was asked to join Grupa Sambando by John Harborne who'd discovered a group called Fundo do Quintal. He fell in love with their music and decided to start this band. There are three Brazilians in it. This music came out of a very early style of Samba called Partido Alto which had a lot of improvisation. There was a big revival in the late 70s, early 80s. It became know as Pagode, the name for party. So Pagode music is party music.

Bosco was one of the founding members of the LSS - and the first official member of the school - here is his original membership card no. 001 from 1984. The other founding members of the School were: Alan Hayman (South Africa); Gerry Hunt (UK); Carlos Fuentes (Chile); Pato Fuentes (Chile); Dave Patman (UK); Roberta Pla (Colombia); Kim Burton (UK); Liliana Chachian (Brasil); German Santana (Chile); Dawson Miller (UK) and Dave Bitelli (UK/Italy)

For sound files of Bosco playing with his band Sambando and talking about the history of Samba visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/onyourstreet/msbosco1.shtml