Raphael Rabello

Rafael Baptista Rabello (October 31, 1962 – April 27, 1995) was a virtuoso Brazilian guitarist and composer. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was considered one of the best acoustic guitar players in the world and played with many famous artists, such as Tom Jobim, Ney Matogrosso, Paulo Moura, and Paco de Lucia.

Biography

Early years Raphael Rabello was born in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was the youngest child of his family, which included many musicians. His sister Luciana was a well-known cavaquinho player and his other sister, Amélia, became a singer. His first guitar teacher was an older brother, Ruy Fabiano, when Raphael Rabello was seven years old. However, the biggest influence on Rabello starting his music studies was his grandfather, José de Queiroz Baptista, who was a choro guitar player.

He studied music theory with Maria Alice Salles, who also taught his brothers and sisters. In the 1970s, he took guitar lessons with Jaime Florence, the famous Meira, who had also taught Baden Powell in the 1940s. In the same period, he studied harmony with Ian Guest.

Early musical career His first recording as a sideman was at age 14 on a recording of choro music by classical guitarist Turibio Santos. In this period, he took lessons from guitarist Dino 7 Cordas (Dino 7 strings), with whom he recorded an LP in 1991.

In 1976, he founded the group Os Carioquinhas, with his sister Luciana Rabello (cavaquinho), Paulo Alves (mandolin), Téo (acoustic guitar) and Mario Florêncio (tambourine). The band became famous and played with many other choro groups, such as Época de Ouro and Quinteto Villa-Lobos. They also recorded one album in 1977.

In 1979, Rabello became a member of Camerata Carioca. This was the period in which he met Radamés Gnattali, who became a partner of Rabello. They recorded one disc together in 1984. Three years later, Rabello also recorded a tribute album to Gnattali.

Between 1980 and 1981, Rabello became a studio musician and started recording with many singers and instrumentalists. In this same period, he started his career as an arranger, working for the group Galo Preto.

Legacy Rabello has had two full-length CDs released posthumously and a choro school was named after him.

His latest posthumous release is the project he was working on when he died: a tribute to Lourenço da Fonseca Barbosa, known as Capiba (1904–1997). He was one of the arrangers, is credited as producer, played a lot of the guitar and even sang on one of the tracks. The guest-singer list is a veritable "who's who" of Brazilian singers: Chico Buarque, Paulinho da Viola, Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Alceu Valença, João Bosco, and Ney Matogrosso.

Discography 1982: Rafael Sete Cordas (Polygram) 1984: Tributo a Garoto (Barclay), with Radamés Gnattali 1990: A flor da pele (Polygram/Philips), with Ney Matogrosso 1991: Todo sentimento (Columbia), with Elizeth Cardoso 1991: Raphael Rabello & Dino 7 Cordas (Caju Music), with Dino 7 Cordas 1992: Dois irmãos (Caju Music), with Paulo Moura 1992: Todos os tons (RCA) 1992: Shades of Rio (Chesky), with Romero Lubambo 1993: Delicatesse (RCA), with Déo Rian 1994: Relendo Dilermando Reis (RGE) 1997: Em concerto (Spotlight), with Armandinho 2001: Todas as canções (Acari), with Amélia Rabello 2002: Mestre Capiba por Raphael Rabello e Convidados (Acari) 2005: Cry my guitar (GSP)