Carmela Rappazzo grew up in what she has described as "a rather large and crazy Sicilian family" in New York, with her father and five uncles all playing in swing bands. Music was the background and texture of daily life from her earliest years. She developed as a vocalist across multiple cities — New York, Los Angeles, New Mexico — absorbing big band experience, theatrical work, and singer-songwriter influences before eventually settling in New Orleans.
New Orleans gave Rappazzo both a collaborator and a musical direction. Her ongoing partnership with pianist and composer Oscar Rossignoli has been central to her output since moving to the city. Rossignoli plays piano and handles musical direction on several of her albums. Other New Orleans musicians who appear regularly in her work include bassist Martin Masakowski and drummer Doug Belote.
Her sixth album, Howlin' at the Moon (2018), was the most explicitly New Orleans-inflected record of her career: a tribute to her adopted hometown, recorded at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music and featuring local musicians including Paul Sanchez. Her seventh, Love and Other Difficulties (2021), recorded during COVID lockdown, explored the many faces of love through original songs, Cole Porter and Billy Strayhorn standards, and a cover of a Paul Sanchez song. Her eighth, Whispering (2023), continues the run of prolific original songwriting.
