Christopher North, who played keyboards as a founding member of the soft rock group Ambrosia, died Monday at a hospice in Los Angeles. He was 75 years old.
His death was confirmed by Joe Puerta de Ambrosia, who said the cause was throat cancer. According to Puerta, North was seriously injured late last year when he was hit by a car while walking to Fromin's deli in Santa Monica.
In a post on Ambrosia's Facebook account, the band described North as “the King Hammond B3” for his preferred instrument and said his “sonic architecture defined a generation of progressive, soft rock.” North “was a keyboard wizard,” the group added, “who brought unparalleled intensity and emotional depth to every performance” and whose work “created 'aural landscapes' that balanced virtuosity with soulful, radio-friendly hooks.”
Purveyors of the upbeat, slightly soulful sound that also brought success in the mid-1970s to groups like America and Seals & Crofts (whose Dash Crofts died last week), Ambrosia scored a string of top 40 hits in the second half of that decade, including two that peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100: “How Much I Feel” and “Biggest Part of Me,” the latter of which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.
Today, both songs are considered key examples of the style that became retroactively known as Yacht Rock; on Spotify, each has more than 120 million streams.
North was born on January 26, 1951 and grew up in San Pedro. He formed Ambrosia in 1970 with Door to Bass, singer and guitarist David Pack and drummer Burleigh Drummond. The group's self-titled debut album came out in 1975; At the time, the band had a more ornate Genesis sound. However, he had mellowed with 1978's “Life Beyond LA,” his first LP for the Warner Bros. label.
“What we didn't like about progressive rock was that it was too extravagant and without substance,” Pack told The Times in 1999. “Those bands dated themselves by making the arrangements more central than the quality of the songwriting. I think we were different in that sense.”
The album “One Eighty” came out in 1980 and produced a second hit after “Biggest Part of Me” in “You're the Only Woman (You & I),” which peaked at No. 13 on the Hot 100. The following year, Ambrosia's song “Poor Rich Boy” appeared on the soundtrack of the film “Arthur” along with “Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do),” which topped Christopher's charts. Cross.
Ambrosia broke up in 1982 but reunited in 1989; Pack later left, although the band's other three founders continued to perform. North's survivors include a brother and two sons.
