In the 1960s he was a member of the Berimbau Trio, alongside Milton Nascimento (who was a double bass player at the time) and Wagner Tiso (pianist), playing in nightclubs in Belo Horizonte.

[2] During this period, he also worked as a studio musician, recording with Tim Maia, Milton Nascimento, Beth Carvalho, Raul Seixas, Rita Lee, Carlos Lyra, Emílio Santiago, MPB4, Sueli Costa, Nara Leão, Taiguara, Chico Buarque, Gal Costa, Djavan, Raimundo Fagner, Jards Macalé, Gilberto Gil, and Ivan Lins.

In 1995 he moved to the US, where he played with musicians such as Joe Henderson, Pat Metheny, David Sanborn, Michael Brecker and Gil Goldstein.

With Henderson he was a drummer on some of the tracks of the albums Double Rainbow: The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Big Band.

In 2009, this CD won the Brazilian Music Award as the best MPB (Música popular brasileira) recording of the year.