Ravel was born and bred in Los Angeles to a Ukrainian-German-Polish father and a Colombian mother. He started playing the accordion at the age of 7 then moved on to play the drums, guitar and eventually the piano. He later received his Bachelor's Degree in Music graduating with cum laude honors from California State University.[5][6]
Ravel began performing around the world at age 23 with Brazilian icon Sergio Mendes where he was later signed by Universal Records. This led to a series of three sensual and fiery albums: Midnight Passion, Sol to Soul and Freddie Ravel which charted #1 in the USA and have garnered critical acclaim with the Los Angeles Times describing his music as "a masterful blend of jazz textures, rock energy and tropical rhythms" with guitar legend Carlos Santana describing it as "puro corazon".[7][failed verification]
During 1988 Ravel became the musical director for Indian violinist L. Subramaniam. Within the following year he became a member of Sergio Mendes's band.[5][6] Ravel went on to join Earth, Wind & Fire in 1992 as the band's musical director. He thus played on their 1993 album Millennium. Millennium has since been certified Gold in Japan by the RIAJ. He also featured on Flora Purim's 1994 album Speed of Light. After four years with EWF he went on perform with Madonna on the soundtrack of the 1996 feature film Evita. He also played on Peter White's 1997 LP Songs of the Season. During 1998 Ravel became the musical director of Jazz musician Al Jarreau.[3][6][8][9][10] He went on to produce Jarreau on his 2000 album Tomorrow Today.[11] The album rose to No. 2 on the BillboardJazz Albums chart.[12]
On November 17, 2012, Ravel was officially knighted by the Knights of St. John, champions of hospitals and health care for the past 1000+ years. Ravel would later be dubbed the "Keynote Maestro" by the City of Los Angeles for "renewing the national and international economy" through his Life In Tune system, his clients include IBM, NASA, Google, Apple, Blue Cross, EY and Prudential calling his “ideal balance of Entertainment and Content” essential to transforming dissonance to harmony.[15]
^Personal thank you notes from co-authors Yolanda King, Elodia Tate and Robert Kennedy Jr. to Freddie Ravel for his literary contribution of "The Artist in Us All" for the McGraw-Hill 2003 publication, "Open My Eyes, Open My Soul".
^Ravel, Freddie (2004). "The Artist in Us All". In Yolanda King; Elodia Tate (eds.). Open My Eyes, Open My Soul: Celebrating Our Common Humanity. McGraw-Hill. pp. 43–44. ISBN978-0071438865. LCCN2003023543. First published in Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Soul, Penguin 1998
^"Freddie Ravel". Leading Authorities International. May 8, 2019.
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