Carlinhos Pandeiro>>>

The pandeiro is the quintessential instrument of the samba. It looks similar to a large tambourine, but its drum skin is much louder and more taught, and the bells face inward so that the ringing sound is somewhat muffled and the beat of the head of the drum more pronounced.

But the person who was most responsible for promulgating this whole tradition back in the early 1960's was a man named Carlinhos de Oliveira, a pandeiro player and performer for Rio's great samba club Mangueira. Carlinhos didn't just expertly play the pandeiro like his contemporaries did; he also simultaneously performed amazing tricks and stunts with the instrument, so beginning the now time-honored tradition of the malabarista leading the carnaval parade. This is what led him in 1966 to win the title "pandeiro de ouro" (pandeiro of gold) that has stuck with him ever since.