I've been interested in brazilian drums for several years now but have never really taken the time to find much (or at least, the little searching i did wasn't very successful).

what i have in mind is something like brazilian drum schools. i'm not sure whether there's a name for the genre. It's a group of maybe, 10, 20, 30, sometimes more, percussionists playing at the same time. I saw some live once and found it riveting.

an example can be found in this video: Snoop Dogg - Beautiful (i know! how lame to have Snoop as a reference but it's the only thing that came to mind. go straight to the 4:35 mark, there's a little portion of a brazilian drum group, it should give you an idea of what i'm talking about)

so if anyone knows anything about this, and has any recommendations, i'd greatly appreciate it
thanx in advance

I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but there's a collection series called Master Of Percussion. The albums focus on an area of the world (Latin America, Africa, etc) and feature percussion heavy tracks from various artists. I've heard a few samples online but have never picked up one of these albums, though I'd like to. Another comp I have my eyes on is Cuban Drums: Afro-Cuban Cult Rhythms. I think it's in the same category as the other series.

I love modern Brazilian music, there's a nice electronica/hip hop comp What's Happening in Pernambuco on Luka Bop. Not sure if that's what you're looking for either. Here's a link for it-

What's Happening In Pernambuco YouTube

This probably isn't exactly what you're looking for either, but the sountrack to the film Black Orpheus is very nice. There are some cool drums in a couple of the carnivale tracks. The film is great too.