Pianist Ravel Runs Gamut--From ‘Sol to Soul’

Keyboardist Freddie Ravel may be a Los Angeles native and resident, but musically he’s all over the map. His latest recording boasts at least half a dozen styles including jazz, R&B;, salsa, blues, samba and even a New Age paean to meditation co-written with mind-body guru Deepak Chopra.

The album title (on the Verve label) is “Sol to Soul.”

“It represents a bridge from the Latin side to the R&B; side,” said Ravel, 36, who appears tonight at San Juan Capistrano Regional Library. “I produced half the album, [Earth, Wind and Fire leader] Maurice White and I did half the album together. I’m the sol, he’s the soul.” Ravel was Earth, Wind and Fire’s musical director for four years; “sol” is Spanish for sun.

Ravel, who is of South American and Eastern European descent, wrote all but one of the tunes on the new album. As for its stylistic diversity, he took his cue from Quincy Jones’ 1981 album “The Dude”: “That record had six different styles and [won five] Grammy Awards,” he noted in a recent phone interview from his home.

Joining Ravel for a pair of shows on the library’s Multicultural Arts Series are singer Ron Williams, Jimmy Earl on bass, Bernie Dresel on drums, Kevin Richard on percussion, and Fred Schreuders (of the group Hiroshima) on guitar.

Ravel began accordion lessons at age 7 and dabbled in drums and guitar before settling on piano. He pursued jazz and classical studies and earned a bachelor’s degree at Cal State Northridge. Keyboard activities have now extended beyond acoustic piano to Rhodes piano, breath and mallet synthesizers, Clavinet, organ and Moog bass.

He served as musical director for violinist L. Subramaniam in India in 1988, an experience that began, he said, as “a seat-of-the-pants kind of thing.” The next year, while performing with Sergio Mendes at the Newport Jazz Festival in Japan, he was spotted and signed by Polygram; Ravel’s solo debut, “Midnight Passion” (1991), was a Top 10 hit on the contemporary chart. He’s since worked with acts as diverse as Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones, Bobby McFerrin, the Rippingtons and the singer once known as Prince.

A friend introduced him to Deepak Chopra in 1992; Chopra immediately asked him to write a tune about meditation. Ravel and Earth, Wind and Fire bass player Verdine White “finessed” Chopra’s ideas, “massaged” the lyrics, and came up with “Slip in the Gap.”

Ravel attends to his soul with spiritual studies and daily yoga; he gets his sol while hiking and cycling. Harmony is a goal that he says is especially pertinent to his hometown these days.

Los Angeles, he noted, is a “real stew”; ethnically and musically, he said, “that’s real serious gumbo we got going on.” Ravel, who composed, coproduced and performed on Earth Wind and Fire’s 2-million-selling 1994 album “Millennium,” hopes that the year 2000 will find people enjoying that gumbo with gusto.

“I’ve been seeing this millennium coming,” Ravel said. “The world is getting smaller. CNN, e-mail . . . they put the world in our living room.

“It’s time we don’t always put things in categories. Hybrid is the way the world is going. Kids today are hybrids, black and Spanish and Asian rolled into one.

“That’s the millennium picture: that many forms of music, and people, can coexist and still have a lot of harmony.”

* Keyboardist Freddie Ravel performs tonight at San Juan Capistrano Library, 31495 El Camino Real. 7 and 9 p.m. $6. (714) 248-7468. He also plays May 25 at the KIFM San Diego Festival and May 26 at both the UCLA Jazz Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival in Pasadena’s Central Park.