Edison Machado was a pioneering Brazilian drummer who revolutionized samba music in 1949 by inventing the "Samba no Prato" (Samba on the Cymbals) technique. During a performance at a Gafieira (dance hall), after his snare drum broke, he innovatively played the ride cymbal with his right hand while adding syncopated accents on the tom drum.

A key figure in the development of bossa nova, Machado performed with legendary artists like Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, and Sergio Mendes. He founded Bossa Três, the world's first instrumental bossa nova group, and achieved international recognition with performances in New York, including an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Machado's musical career spanned several tumultuous decades of Brazilian history. After five years in the Brazilian army, he became a prominent musician in Rio de Janeiro's Beco das Garrafas (Bottles Alley). During the military dictatorship, he faced significant challenges, including financial struggles and a brief imprisonment after unknowingly sharing an apartment with a Communist Party member.

In the late 1970s, he joined the Boa Nova ensemble, moving to Paris and then New York, where he spent 13 years recording with notable jazz musicians like Chet Baker and Ron Carter. Described by peers as playing "as if he were at war," Machado's drumming embodied a complex tension between disciplined control and wild creative abandon. Struggling with personal challenges, Machado returned to Rio de Janeiro in April 1990 and passed away that September, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most influential drummers in Brazilian music history.