king of bongo

As an addendum to the previous post, another excerpt from my sister's music-oriented Brazil update:

On a brighter note, I went to an amazing percussions festival last week, and met Giovanni Hidalgo one of the world's greatest bongo players (so I'm told. I'd never heard of him before, but he's a lovely man. Short and chubby like a human teddy bear, and he shouted with delight when he caught me and my friend Marcos stealing his fruit backstage). Also got to observe groupies in action. I'd never been backstage for anything, so seeing these girls throw themselves at the musicians as soon as they stepped offstage was a trip.

In case others don't know Hidalgo, a demonstration of his prowess (via The Jazz Clinic):