Tommy Ambrose

ARTICLE CONTENTS:  |  Bibliography  |  Links to Other Sites

Ambrose, Tommy
Tommy (Thomas) Ambrose. Singer, composer, b Toronto 19 Oct 1939. At 5 he began singing at "Youth for Christ" rallies at Massey Hall, Maple Leaf Gardens, and elsewhere. Until he was 16 he performed on gospel radio shows on CKEY and CFRB. Turning to popular music he made his CBC TV debut in 1957 on "Cross-Canada Hit Parade" and was host for "While We're Young" (summers 1960, 1961) and for "The Tommy Ambrose Show" 1961-3. He made the LP Young Tommy Ambrose (Chateau CLP-1007) with the Don (D.T.) Thompson Septet during this period.

After several years of nightclub work, accompanied in the late 1960s by Norm Amadio, Ambrose became host for the CBC's gospel series "Celebration," on radio 1971-4 and on TV 1975-6. Blaik Kirby in the Toronto Globe and Mail (8 Dec 1971) wrote of Ambrose's singing: "His lean-sounding voice is invariably in tune, his notes beautifully sustained and focussed. There is a marvelous feeling of security as you listen." In the late 1970s Ambrose performed occasionally in clubs and concerts with a nonet led by Doug Riley; in this setting he made the LP Tommy Ambrose at Last (New Ventures NV-5009).

As a partner 1971-88 with Larry Trudel in Trudel Productions, and through his own PC Productions, established in 1989, he has composed many successful jingles (with Riley, lyricist Gary Gray, and others), theme songs for CITY-TV ("People City," lyrics by Gray) and Global TV, and several scores for CBC TV movies. He was the proprietor 1977-89 of Jingles, a downtown Toronto bar that on occasion presented jazz groups. Ambrose's other recordings include singles for Warner Brothers and RCA Victor and the LPs Fuzzy Love (Kanata 4, with Bruno Gerussi) and Sweet Times (1978, New Ventures NV-5005).


Bibliography

Flohil, Richard. "Tommy Ambrose bounces back into the big time," CanComp, 67, Feb 1972

Batten, Jack. "Tommy Ambrose: Toronto chauvenist in song," Toronto Globe and Mail, 17 Feb 1973

Blackburn, Bob. "Just like a celebration," Toronto Sunday Sun, 18 Feb 1979


Links to Other Sites
Canadian Jazz Archives Online
Search this extensive multimedia website for your favourite jazz musican. Features biographies, photos, online audio files of jazz concerts, a jazz glossary, and much more.

The CanCon Atlas
An interactive map depicting some of the Canadian places celebrated in song. Click on the map icons around the country to view music videos by a cross-section of Canadian musicians. From the CBC website.

0
0
Absolutely free, with over 40,000 articles in French and English, The Canadian Encyclopedia is the ultimate online resource for all things Canadian, from history, sports, arts, science, technology, and much, much more. Get started at www.TheCanadianEncyclopedia.com
Feature Articles
Maisonneuve and the Founding of Montreal

The story of the founding of Montreal is perhaps unique in history....

INSIDE TCE

Gallery
Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Interactive Resources
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
Canucklehead
The ultimate test of your knowledge of Canada, trivial and otherwise. You can choose from more than 60 dynamic quizzes with visual or text clues. Your scores depend on the speed with which you answer and the number of clues you need. Results are sent to you by email and high scores are posted on the site.
Timeline
This unique resource includes more than 6000 events from Canadian and world history. It can be searched by era, subject, keyword or date. To find out what happened on your birthday, select the month and day of your birth.
100 Greatest Events
This selection of the 100 "greatest" events in Canadian history was made by editor in chief James H. Marsh to draw attention to events that have left an indelible memory in the minds of later generations.