I was doing this with some students, using a similar groove to Omar Hakim’s Predator groove— vastly simplified. There are a couple of pages of “funk samba” grooves in Roy Burns / Joey Farris’s underrated book Studio Funk Drumming that are good.
I don’t know how much of a real legal samba this is, but it’s a familiar type of groove, with alternating 16th notes on the hihat, and a displaced backbeat:
We made some two measure phrases out of that by moving the bass drum note on 1 of the second measure. It’s one good way of developing some flexibility with a composed groove. Here’s what’s happening below:
1. Anticipation— move BD to & of 4 of first measure.
2. Anticipation— move to a of 4 of first measure.
3. Delayed— move to e of 1 of second measure.
4. Delayed— move to & of 1 of second measure.
5. Split the 1— & of 4, & of 1
6. Split the 1— a of 4, e of 1
7. Split— & of 4, e of 1
8. Split— a of 4, e of 1
You could do some similar variations in the middle of the measure to get some variety with the one-bar groove. We’ve also been adding open sounds, accents, and open rolls/drags to the hihat part, a la the Predator groove. I encourage you to pencil those in.