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==