#60- RAPHAEL RABELLO

Rafael Baptista Rabello (October 31, 1962 – April 27, 1995), was a virtuoso Brazilian guitarist and composer. During 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.

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

He studied musical theory with Maria Alice Salles, who also taught to his brothers and sisters. In 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. Influenced by Dino 7 Cordas, Rabello eventually switched to the Brazilian seven-string guitar and started playing professionally when he was a teenager.

His first recording as a sideman was at the age of 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 her 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 member of Camerata Carioca. This was the period which he met Radamés Gnattali, who became partner of Rabello. They recorded one disc together in 1984. Three years later, Rabello also recorded a tribute album to Ganttali.

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 arranger, working for the group Galo Preto.

His most productive years spanned 1982 to 1995. He was considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists of his generation. He played in many different styles, but specialised in choro. His first album was released in 1982 and, influenced by Dino 7 Cordas, Rabello adopted the name 'Raphael 7 Cordas', which was also the name of his first record. However, he did not use this nick for too long.

Along his career, Rabello recorded 16 albums, some of them with honorable artists, such as Dino 7 Cordas, Elizeth Cardoso and Paulo Moura. He also participated of about 600 albums recording in Brazil and abroad. He participated in concerts and recordings with a number of well-known Brazilian musicians, such as Tom Jobim, Ney Matogrosso, Jaques Morelenbaum and Paulo Moura, as well as international players, such as Paco de Lucia.

Rabello also became famous abroad his country. He made shows in Italy, Switzerland, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, France, Canada and United States. In 1994, he moved to USA and met Laurindo de Almeida, a businessman who helped to spread his work around the world. There, he also gave guitar lessons in Los Angeles. At the end of the same year, he returned to Brazil to participated of the project "Orgulho do Brasil", which intended to record song composed by the most notable artists of that country. In this project, he recorded a tribute to Capiba, which as released in 2002.

In 1989, Rabello had a car accident and suffered multiple fractures in his right arm. After a delicate surgery, he recovered and continued to play months later. However, during this surgery, he contracted HIV in a blood transfusion. Hopeless, he became addicted to alcohol and drugs. On April 27, 1995, Rabello died of cardiac sysrhythmia followed by respiratory arrest.

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 guitar and even sang on one of the tracks. The guest-singer list is a veritable "who-is-who" of Brazilian singers: Chico Buarque, Paulinho da Viola, Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Alceu Valença, João Bosco, and Ney Matogrosso.

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Source: Wikipedia

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