DAVID PACK
	Biography

David Pack was born in Huntington Park, California on July 15, 1952. His love of music began at a very young age: picking up a ukulele at age five, playing in various bands by the age of twelve.

During his senior year in high school, he formed the band Ambrosia with Burleigh Drummond, Joe Puerta, and Christopher North. Their first album was released in 1975, and that self-titled album was engineered by Alan Parsons. The following year Alan produced their "Somewhere I've Never Travelled" album. The story of how Alan came to connect with the band was quite interesting and he says, "We had become aware of his prodigious talents through an English Classical engineer, Gordon Parry, who had been at Decca Records for over twenty years. Gordon pointed out the magnificent job Alan had done on "Dark Side of the Moon". We realized that no American engineer at that time could touch Alan, and that he was our man. We basically called Abbey Road Studios and oddly enough, Alan answered the phone. Alan apparently was leaving for dinner, noticed the phone ringing at the reception desk and no one was there, so he picked it up, and took the call!"

Over the years Ambrosia released a string of albums: "Life Beyond L.A." (1978), "One Eighty" (1980), and "Road Island" (1982). The band also made guest appearances on other albums, including on Trefethen's "It's All Mom's Fault", and performing on the 1977 "Coast to Coast" soundtrack. In 1976, they appeared on the "All This And World War II" soundtrack - that album had Beatles tunes covered by an all-star cast and Ambrosia contributed "Magical Mystery Tour". In 1976, the complete Ambrosia band also appeared on the "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" album.

David also made appearances on the Alan Parsons' produced Al Stewart albums "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages".

It would be quite some time until Pack appeared on another Alan Parsons record, but in 1993 he played a big role on the "Try Anything Once" album. The tracks "The Three of Me" and "I'm Talkin' To You" were both co-written with Andrew Powell. The other song David wrote for TAO was "Oh Life (There Must Be More)" - The story told in the song was inspired by a newspaper article.

Over the years David has worked with a diverse range of artistes: Kenny Loggins and Kansas (rock); Trisha Yearwood and Wynonna (country), and James Newton-Howard (the soundtrack king). As well as Chris Rea, Gary Wright, David Benoit, Vonda Sheppard, and many more.

David has acted as musical director at some impressive gigs, including both of President Bill Clinton's inaugurations. In 1995 David was musical director for a Benefit for Children of Bosnia. The event at the Greek Theatre had appearances by Fleetwood Mac, Yes, Yanni, and one of the early live appearances by Alan Parsons.

Another interesting project involved creating the song "Remember The Magic" which was the theme for Disneyworld's 25th anniversary. The song was used for everything from the worldwide advertising campaign to the daily parade at the Magic Kingdom.

One of David's favourite projects was his album "The Songs of West Side Story" based on the music of Leonard Berstein. It featured an all-star cast including: Aretha Franklin, Phil Collins, Wynonna, Little Richard, and Selena (sadly, it was her last recording).

On the performing front, in the year 2000, Pack joined forces with Howard Hewett and Richard Marx to perform "The Way It Will Be" for Original Cast Recording/Various artists album "Child of the Promise".

What has David Pack been doing lately? David explains, "The past year (2001) was all about launching a new "pop spiritual" media company, Mpowered Ideas. It's an incredible, once in a lifetime opportunity, with works that I believe can impact the world in a significant and powerful way."

Most recently Mpowered Ideas Media, worked with the American Bible Society, a 185 year-old non profit organization in New York to produce a special 9/11 memorial CD single, dedicated to the children of the victims. David Pack has set Psalm 23 to music and to help get the project rolling, David performed the debut of his Psalm 23 in New York on the first anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. The piece was commissioned by American Bible Society, so it was decided to perform the music in front of their building on 61st and Broadway. To download a sample of the music, or learn more about the project, visit www.americanbible.org

Over the years, David Pack has worked with a diverse range of artists from Alan Parsons to Chet Atkins, and worked on an incredible range of project from Presidential inaugurations to Disney theme park music. Looking to the future, you can be sure you'll hear more from David … you just never know what it might be next!

For more about David Pack, see Issues 23 and 24 of The Avenue.

David Pack

Selected Discography

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