AMBROSIA
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While many people are familiar with Ambrosia's radio hits of the 70's, the songs on their five albums range also to progressive and experimental. They are as comfortable with ballads as with driving rock and roll. They can be serious, they can be playful, but always the music is rich, the harmonies are beautifully-blended, and even after twenty years it sounds great.
The founding members of Ambrosia grew up in Southern California in the area known as The South Bay, later adopting San Pedro as their home town. Their earliest musical influences came from The Beach Boys and The Beatles.
In an early incarnation of the band, Joe Puerta and David Pack began to experiment with harmonies. This led to an infatuation with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. After Christopher North and Burleigh Drummond joined, the four attended a show at the Whiskey a Go-Go to see an unknown (at the time), but highly recommended new band: King Crimson. That show would change their perception of music forever.
Other major influences on the music of Ambrosia include The Allman Brothers, The Sons of Champlin, Yes, The Who, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Traffic, Pink Floyd and later Genesis and Gentle Giant. Individually, David Pack always loved Motown and this is still very evident in his singing and song writing; Christopher North was classically trained but loves jazz and the blues; Burleigh Drummond had early training in stage acting; and Joe Puerta liked anything that had a tone.
A little known fact is Ambrosia's connection with The Alan Parsons Project. Alan Parsons himself was the engineer for Ambrosia's first album and the producer for their second; all four members of Ambrosia played on the first Alan Parsons Project album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (which was recorded soon after Ambrosia's first album); and David Pack appears on the Alan Parsons Project album Try Anything Once (1993), co-writing, playing and providing vocals on two songs.
Ambrosia is still together (or more accurately, together again), still with the original four members, and they've been doing live performances for a number of years. There have been no new albums since 1982, but they have continued to write and perform new material!
If you are interested in booking Ambrosia for an appearance, here are their booking agents:
Check out the Great Ambrosia Tunes! You need RealAudio Player!
Just Click on an Album!
In 1976, Ambrosia did the song "Magical Mystery Tour" for a movie called "All This And World War II". There's also a soundtrack album featuring other artists doing covers of Beatles songs.
The latest word from Waner Brothers is that it won't be ready until
April of 1997.
In the meantime, here's the song list.
As far as I know, the only available CD's are Life Beyond L.A. and One Eighty, both as rather expensive Japanese imports.
However, the BAND says that if the above mentioned anthology is well-received, all of the original Ambrosia albums will be released as (U.S. domestic) CDs!
Joe Puerta: Bass Guitar and Lead Vocals
David Pack:
Guitar and Lead Vocals
Christopher North: Keyboards
Burleigh Drummond:
Drums, Percussion
And(part-time)
David Cutler Lewis:Additional Keyboards
Royce Jones:Additional Back-up & Lead Vocals
Joe Puerta was a founding member of Bruce Hornsby and The Range.
In 1985, David Pack released a solo album, Anywhere You Go (the CD is available as a Japanese import). A track from it was featured in the film White Knights. He has also worked with Quincy Jones and Patti Austin, and he was the musical director at President Clinton's innaugural.
In 1993, Ambrosia reunited for some live appearances. I saw them in St.Petersburg,FL, and they put on an absolutely awsome show. They played a lot, they played well, and it was clear that they were there because they really enjoyed it. They REALLY love the fans!Notable among their appearances was the "Children Under Siege" benefit concert (for the children of Bosnia-Herzegovina) at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on October 14, 1993. Not only did Ambrosia play a couple of songs, but David Pack was the musical director of the entire concert. The concert also featured the first (in the U.S., anyway) live appearance by Alan Parsons.
David Pack appears on the Alan Parsons Project album Try Anything Once (1993), co-writing, playing and providing vocals on two songs.
In 1996, David Pack conceived and produced the album Songs From West Side Story, a tribute to Leonard Bernstein featuring such artists as Selena, Michael MacDonald, Kenny Loggins, Winona Judd, Patti Austin, Bruce Hornsby, Lisa Lopez, The Jerky Boys, and others. The members of Ambrosia appear together on one of the tracks.
Ambrosia manna on the Web
Pat and Billie's Ambrosia Source,Live & rare Ambrosia audio files!
If you know of anything else, please tell me .
Thanks go to AMBROSIA,Jim Preston,Pat & Billie Boyette & GOD for background information on the band, and all the information about the anthology CD. Thank you GeoCities!
AMBROSIA Fan # Since 1-21-97!
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