In honor of this year's Grammy Awards, we are taking a look back at a pair of Grammy nominated and Grammy winning artists that we have had the pleasure of welcoming to The Action Catalyst. We begin with Freddie Ravel, a virtuoso piano player and more who has performed with some of the biggest names in music, and co-produced and wrote the title track, as well as performed on the George Benson/Al Jarreau album “Given It Up”, which won 4 Grammys in 2007, and was nominated for a 5th, and continue with Dennis Scott, a two-time Grammy Award winner for his work in children's music, first on an album of country songs for Sesame Street, and second for a collection of music from Mr. Fred Rogers. Dennis is also the recipient of two Emmys, a Parent’s Choice Award, and a Telly. Hear Freddie's full interview in Episode 258 of The Action Catalyst. Hear Dennis' full interview on Episode 367 of The Action Catalyst.
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We're taking a look back at a pair of Grammy-nominated and Grammy-winning artists that we've had the pleasure of welcoming to The Action Catalyst.
We begin with Freddie Revelle, a virtuoso piano player and more, who has performed with some of the biggest names in music, and co-produced and wrote the title track, as well as performed on the George Benson and Al Jarreau album, Given It Up, which won four Grammys in 2007 and was nominated for a fifth.
Freddie, thank you for gracing us today with your presence, with your talents, and with your message.
Thanks for having me, Dan. It's great to be speaking to you and my friends in Music City.
Well, that is great. When I look over your background, your resume, you have traveled and performed and composed with so many people, from Sergio Mendez. You've learned from Deepak Chopra, with Al Jarreau, with Carlos Santana, so many more. Badia! When you got involved with the Earth, Wind & Fire.
When they hired me, that was the golden age of keyboards. You would walk on stage with about five or six keyboards all around you. So I played synthesizers and organs and clavinets and string parts and electric piano and acoustic piano and all kinds of different sounds. And in addition to playing...
They asked me to compose, produce, and also serve as their musical director while I was doing these things. So I had the great honor to work with those horns, that rhythm section, those amazing vocals. I'd say that was definitely one of the highlights of my journey. Well, what does a musical director do during a concert, during a live performance?
A musical director during the concert may do some conducting, may hold out their hand to signal something. But at that level, when you're working with a band of that caliber, all the work already occurred at rehearsal. By the time you hit the stage, it's time to have fun. And the steps, the arrangements, the execution of all that has already been well rehearsed. Oh, OK.
but it's a matter of being very aware of what's going on around you and audience reaction and all the rest of that at the same time. Absolutely.
It's a bit like being a conductor in an orchestra, but they call it musical directing when it's in the world of pop music.
Well, I also know one of the big influences on you was your time spent with Deepak Chopra. Can you expand on that for us, please?
Yeah, Deepak Chopra moved to the West Coast in 1992 as Dr. Deepak Chopra, and he wasn't as big and famous yet at that time. He was an endocrinologist who had moved in from Boston out to LA. And one of the people that serves as the PR person for another great thought leader, Marianne Williamson, invited me. She was representing Deepak as well.
And she suggested to Deepak that we get together and compose music. And we did meet, and Deepak and I connected immediately. And he was very interested in spreading the news of a piece called Slip in the Gap, which was a concept of meditation. Now, for me as a musician, I perceived it as the space between the notes, whereas in meditation, you would call it the space between thoughts.
And we decided that we would bridge these two worlds, the space between the notes and the space between thoughts, into this song called Slip in the Gap, which I co-wrote with a lady by the name of Anjani and Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire. So we all got together. We put this piece together. This was in 1993. And it came out on my second album, Soul to Soul, and did very, very well.
Touched people in a very different way. And that was the beginning for me, Dan, of starting to do speaking engagements and integrating the philosophies that I had been learning with Deepak and blending them with what I'd been learning with other artists. I also worked with Madonna and Prince as well.
So I was learning a lot from people in the pop world as well as people in the jazz and R&B and soul world. Well, best to you always and keep the music flowing. Thank you, Dan. Thank you for having me. It's been my joy.
Hear his full interview in episode 258 of The Action Catalyst. Next, we welcome Dennis Scott, a former member of the New Christy Minstrels and a two-time Grammy Award winner for his work in children's music, first on an album of country songs for Sesame Street and second for a collection of music from Mr. Fred Rogers. Dennis is also the recipient of two Emmys, a Parents' Choice Award, and a Telly.
Dennis shared his experience of coming up through the music industry and winning a Grammy on his first try.
You've won two Grammys. You've done some amazing work, not only in the popular field, but particularly in the area of children's music.
But through this long career, this wonderful career in which you've achieved so much, I'm sure there were some pivot points where you're heading in a certain direction, then something happened to move you in a different direction, then it moved you in a different direction, influences you encountered that put you where you are today.
Could you maybe talk about some of those most significant pivots for us?
I will give it a shot. I guess I would start by saying I started my career in my early life as a child actor. I was on Broadway when I was seven years old in a show written by Noel Coward. And I thought that was where I was going to be going. I told my parents, I'm either going to be a world-famous actor or a veterinarian.
Then when we got to high school, my biology grades were so bad, my teacher said, no, you better stick with the other thing. But that too changed because at one point I realized that when I got to be a teenager, I was not the little adorable seven-year-old that used to get jobs on television and commercials.
So I got more interested in music when that led me to, like a lot of people, when the Beatles came out, picking up a guitar and learning how to play from my big brother. It led me into more discovery about music and later on became a musician in bands in New York. And eventually that led me to songwriting. And the songwriting is something that I explored.
And the quick story, I'll try to make it as quick as possible, is that I was writing songs and I was on the road with a group called the New Christy Minstrels. And I wrote this song called Captain Kirk's Disco Trek. And I thought, well, this is fun. It's a novelty song. Little knowing that novelty songs are a little hard to get placed on the radio these days.
So I took it around and somebody said, well, why don't you take it to a children's record label? Which I did, which led to a writing assignment for that label. And I took that to Sesame Street and said, here's something I've done. And I was pretty new at it, but I felt good about it. And they said, well, sure, stick around.
And if you want to answer a few phones here, and we got this project in the wings called Sesame Street Country, and see if you can get some celebrity artists to appear on it. So I said, okay, I'll give it a try. And so without any pay, I went in every day to New York City, and I put on a tie, and I got on the phone, and I tried to call every country artist you can imagine.
We ended up getting the Crystal Gale, and Glen Campbell, and Tanya Tucker, and Loretta Lidden, queen of country music. And then the man who was the head of the record label at Sesame Street said, well, do you want to produce it? And I said, yeah, sure. At that point, I had only produced my own little demos in my bedroom with a four track recorder. But my mother always said, ever say no.
So I said yes, and that ultimately led to a Grammy Award for my first time out. So there you go. Wow.
Home run is your first at bat. That's just fantastic. And so many artists have worked with you and recorded your music. I mean, who else is going to have Ray Charles cut one of yours and Elmo cut one of yours? Yeah.
It was a dichotomy if there ever was one.
The range is absolutely fantastic.
I think about the first Grammy that I received for the Sesame Street album, My Parents Went With Me. You know, when you're a musician in kind of the arts fields, you wonder, you know, do your parents really get what you're doing or do they think it means something, it's worthwhile? And I knew that night, something, maybe it was always there, but something clicked in them and said,
okay, this is my son, the Grammy winner. So I think they always felt that way, but I didn't perceive it, but I know now and will know forever.
Well, this is a lesson to all of us who are parents and grandparents then is to express that belief. As your mother said, you can do it. You can do this thing. Dennis, thanks for being on the Action Catalyst.
It's so great meeting you and hopefully I'll see you at the next concert.
You can hear Dennis' full interview on episode 367 of The Action Catalyst. We hope you've enjoyed.
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