Ambrosia

Formed:1971 in Los Angeles, CA - Disbanded 1982

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!

Discography:

Albums:
1975 Ambrosia
1976 Somewhere I've Never Travelled
1978 Life Beyond L.A.
1980 One Eighty
1982 Road Island
2002 Live at the Galaxy