Mention the name “Mannheim Steamroller” to a good portion of the population and you get a funny look and a “Who?” Remind them of the popular version of “Deck The Halls” that has become a mainstay of just about anything to do with Christmas these days, and about half the people will catch on. Play that same song, the one from the album “Mannheim Steamroller Christmas” released in 1984, and you see the light bulb come on over everybody’s head. After all, who HASN’T heard that song - and loved it! That album was the one that made a “Mannheim Steamroller” fan out of me.

After three multi-platinum Christmas albums, “Chip Davis,” founder of “Mannheim Steamroller” and American Gramaphone records, was approached by the folks from Disney to see if he could do the same thing for Disney songs that he’d done for Christmas songs. The result is “Mannheim Steamroller Meets The Mouse,” and several classic Disney songs have now been Mannheim Steamrollered! Personally, I’m totally impressed by what’s been done with songs ranging from “Under The Sea,” to “When You Wish Upon A Star,” to “Mickey Mouse March “(from The Mickey Mouse Club).

The story behind Chip Davis, American Gramaphone and “Mannheim Steamroller” is pretty interesting. The Grammy Award winning composer musician (for “Fresh Aire 7” in 1990 - Best New Age Recording) is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in music. More than 25 years ago, he changed popular instrumental music by introducing what has become known as New Age music. Mixing pop music with classical and rock, he breathed new life into country music, and rejuvenated Christmas music with his series of holiday albums - the latest being “The Christmas Angel” (see review in AMZ 12/98 issue) - with a Christmas tour by “Mannheim Steamroller, an Ice Show interpretation of the story broadcast on NBC in 12/98, and a tour of the Ice Show, starring Dorothy Hamill and Elvis Stojko, through December and January.

Although Davis has had one of the most intriguing careers in the music business, he has largely stayed anonymous, perhaps because he’s not based on the east or west coast, but in the heartland of the country in Omaha, NE. Even though he’s had two quintuple platinum albums and nine gold albums, he’s a low-key, down-to-earth person formed in a small midwest town. For him, music is what matters, not ego, life is what matters, not fame.

"I love creating music,” says Davis. “I enjoy the fun of composition, not the challenge of whether it will sell. I make records for the joy of creating sounds that can make you tap your feet or feel happy or sad. My goal is to make people feel something.

Louis Davis, Jr. grew up in Sylvania, OH and was a chip off the old block. His father was a high school music teacher, and his mother a former trombone player with Phil Spitalny's All Girl Orchestra. Everyone in his family was a musician except his grandfather, the town doctor. One grandmother, also a music teacher, started Chip with the piano at age four. He composed his first piece, a four-part chorale about his dog Stormy when he was six, and began singing in his fathers boys choir when he was ten.

A few years later he became fascinated with electronics, and even built an oscilloscope from a kit. So what did I do with it? he says. I analyzed sound waves. I wanted to see how sound looked. His interest in mathematical science dimmed, though not science itself, and he returned to music, studying bassoon and percussion. He attended the University of Michigan music school and played in its famous marching band.

Growing up in musically and socially turbulent times, Davis says he was Completely insulated from the Sixties, not really aware of pop music. I was completely focused on classical music, because I was going to play bassoon in symphonies. He played bassoon in the university concert band, but he also played percussion in the marching band. Since he was not allowed to major in both composition and performance, he took composition lessons outside the school. I wanted to write music, but universities tend to teach the avant-garde rather than classical composition. But it was a very exciting, romantic period.

Earning his degree in 1969, he was soon hired to tour the renowned Norman Luboff Choir. Norman was such a moving force for me musically because he was really the one who opened my mind about being eclectic. I was very, very classical before that and would never have thought of adding synthesizers. Davis also learned to play drums at the age of 23. People think I am a drummer, because that's what I do in Mannheim Steamroller. I'm really a bassoonist. But I do like the idea of playing music with out a music sheet.

After five years of playing everything from classical to pop, Davis went on to teach junior high music in Sylvania. I thought Id settle down and get a life, he says. Teaching was a revelation. He'd do anything to get his pre-teen students to pay attention - from turning music into a game, to adapting classical standards to contemporary harmonies and rhythms. (Shades of Mr. Hollands Opus perhaps?)

I rewrote the music for their ear range and level of concentration. They'd never last through a 20-minute sonata, so I wrote a 3-minute version. I thought I was writing incredible pop music, he says, adding with a laugh I was all ready to play the Holiday Inn.

Following a year of teaching, he briefly returned to Luboff, and also traveled to Omaha for a workshop at the University of Nebraska in the early 70;s. While there he accepted an offer to arrange and conduct a local production of Hair, a dinner theater version that sounded like Broadway. The show was such a success that the original eight-week run became six months. But I promised myself Id never live in Nebraska, it was too flat - and that Id try anything. but Id never write country music. Little did he know . . .

After the shows run was over, he worked as a jingle writer for a local advertising agency. One of the 2,000 short musical pieces he wrote was for Old Home Bread with ad exec Bill Fries. The radio and TV commercials revolved around fictional truck driver C. W. McCall, his girlfriend Mavis and the Old Home Filler Up and Keep On Truckin' Cafe. The ads were so popular (winning a Cleo award) that listeners would call radio stations and request them as if there were pop songs. At one point, their broadcast times were listed in local editions of TV Guide!

MGM asked Davis and Fries to cut a single, and C.W. McCall and the Old Home Band debuted with Old Home Filler Up and Keep On Truckin' Cafe. The song made the Billboard charts and an album soon followed. Davis called it techno-country or progressive country, and it WAS different - country music with French horns and big-voiced backup vocals. In late 1975, the groups second album, Black Bear Road, shot to #12 on the pop chart, and the single, Convoy, written by Fries and Davis, went gold in two weeks, selling more than a million copies within two months. One of the early, and rare, crossover country hits, Convoy went on to sell 10 million singles and inspired the movie starring Kris Kristofferson in 1978.

While C. W. McCall recorded nine albums and sold 20 million records, the 27 year-old Davis (named Country Music Writer of the Year in 1976) returned to the pieces He'd written while teaching and began to refine them. He traded work hours for studio time at Sound Recorders in Omaha, and recorded his own material at night - music he called 18th Century Classical Rock, that combined classical composition, rock rhythms, harpsichords and recorders with electric bass and synthesizers. I don't believe in all-acoustic or all electronic, all digital or all-analog, he explains. My place is where they meet. Music takes place in time, it doesn't stay on a wall. But if it doesn't work in black and white, on a piano, it doesn't work. Technology hasn't changed that.

Davis tried to sell the album from those sessions, Fresh Aire, to mainstream record companies. They told him Well, we really like the music but we cant sell it because it doesn't fit any category. And besides that, you don't have group. Then They'd buy a couple of boxes for friends, and the secretaries outside the office would ask for a copy of what he was playing. He solved the group problem by calling the band Mannheim Steamroller. It sounded modern but its a classical term. It seemed to embody what I was doing - missing the classical with rock elements. The Mannheim crescendo was named after an 18th century orchestra known for building intensity by adding layers of sound, color, texture, other instruments and volume. The technique was designed to flatten the listener, so Davis jokingly referred to it as the steamroller.

Tackling the marketing problem with equal creativity, he founded American Gramaphone in 1974 with Don Sears, the owner of Sounder Recorders (who sold his share to Davis 10 years later). The name was based on the prestigious classical label, Deutsche Gramophone, but the art director who designed the title logo misspelled gramophone. The albums were distributed not in record stores, but in stereo showrooms. They were used to demo home stereo equipment, and the first few hundred pressed suddenly brought orders for 20,000 more. Listeners said, I like the turntable, but what I really want is what's playing on it. (Yes, that's how I ended up with my first MS album.)

Fresh Aire became a hit from the U.S. to Japan to Germany. Then, as Davis puts it, fans named the albums that came after it. Fresh Aire (1975) is an instrumental exploration of spring, followed by autumn-inspired Fresh Aire II (1977), the summer of Fresh Aire III (1979), the winter of Fresh Aire IV (1981) and Fresh Aire V (1983), a musical portrayal of Johannes Keplers mythical trip to the moon in 1609.

With the latter, Davis finally revealed to the public at large that he was responsible for both Convoy and Toccata, a track that has blown out more speakers than any in recorded music. Nobody in country knew I was the Fresh Aire guy and nobody in the hi-fi world knew I was part of C.W. McCall. I keep it hidden because I thought it'd screw things up. But the reaction was great. You What? that's wild!

Davis announcement that his next album would be a Christmas album was received by the industry with little enthusiasm, noting that Christmas albums were not big sellers, were not played on radio, and were hardly a creative challenge. Davis disagreed. Infusing new life into traditional Christmas music, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas (1984) has sold more than 5 million copies, Deck the Halls became a Top 40 Adult Contemporary hit, and Stille Nacht (Silent Night) was Grammy-nominated for Best Instrumental Arrangement. A Fresh Aire Christmas duplicated the success of M.S. Christmas.

Chips concern for the environment is often reflected in his music as well. In 1986 he released Saving The Wildlife, the soundtrack to a PBS special. The album benefited the Species Survival Program, dedicated to continuing the bloodline of endangered species. Following the devastating fires at Yellowstone National Park, Davis created a concert tour and album titled Yellowstone: The Music of Nature (1989). From the beginning, Chip named the Yellowstone Assoc. a full royalty partner. This entitles Yellowstone to a percentage of the sales, presented semi-annually, for the duration of the project. Yellowstone . . . went gold in 1994, with sales exceeding 500,000 units, and the total donation to Yellowstone exceeds $500,000, the largest individual contribution in the history of the National Park Service.

Continuing the Fresh Aire series was Fresh Aire VI (1986), inspired by Greek mythology, and Fresh Aire VII (1990), an exploration of the nature of the number 7, which won a Grammy and was the seventh Fresh Aire album to be officially certified gold. Classical Gas, a collaboration with guitarist Mason Williams also went gold.

In the early Nineties, Davis started a new series called Day Parts, designed to enrich the mood of daily activities. Sunday Morning Coffee, Sunday Morning Coffee II, Dinner, Romance, Romance II, Party and Party II are what Davis calls gourmet music for the four basic mood groups, and all have contributions from Davis and other American Gramaphone artists. Says Davis, Creating a mood is part of the function of music. I try to stimulate the head and the heart. If I do, then I'm creating art. But how people use my music is up to them - as long as they're listening and enjoying, I'm happy if they vacuum their floors to it.

In 1993, Davis released his most personal effort, Impressions, and in 1994 he was commissioned to write the broadcast theme and additional music for the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the album, To Russia With Love, heading an eleven city U.S. tour. During the 1995 holiday season, Christmas In The Aire became the third installment of the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas albums, and went on to sell over 5 million copies.

Today, Davis lives with wife Trisha, daughter Kelly and son Evan in a house he designed on 100 acres about 15 minutes outside of Omaha. Here I can dream with looking over my shoulder to see what everyone else is doing, says Davis. Family is important to him: I never thought Id enjoy being a dad like I do. Its shed new light on the quality of life. All I want for my kids is the ability to be passionate toward other human beings, their children, their families, and fully enjoy their lives.

As far as future projects go, Fresh Aire VIII will explore the idea of infinity. Scheduled for release in September, 1999, it will be the final album in the series. Chip is also preparing a seven natural Wonders of the World multi-media series that included him climbing Mount McKinley to capture authentic sounds and magnificent sights. A feature film based on a story he wrote is also being developed. The film, featuring his music, is about Christmas 100 years in the future when everyone's moved into shopping malls and forgotten about the giving of oneself that is the heart of the holiday.

Still, Davis remains the unaffected small-town kid, even with the success that allows him to travel in his private jet. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that Chip Davis, bassoon player, would be flying in his own plane. I met Chip Davis when he brought the Mannheim Steamroller holiday tour to Phoenix in December, 1998 (see concert review this issue), and that statement is completely true. He's a really nice, down-to-earth guy, who spends as much time as necessary AFTER a two plus hour concert talking to fans, signing autographs, getting his picture taken either with fans or the rest of Mannheim Steamroller (Supposedly AMZ is the first publication to get Chip AND the rest of the band together at one time for a group picture - enjoy these shots!), and just hanging out. There's no ego trip here, no Hey, look at me! no I don't have time for this attitude. Just an extremely talented man, who makes wonderful music, and accepts the accolades of his fans by asking Did you really like it? I'm so glad!

Mannheim Steamrollers most recent project, the Disney songs, will be released in mid-March. AMZ was lucky enough to receive an advance so we could tell you about it before it hits music stores. Hopefully this review will have you standing in line to buy it as soon as its available.

There are numerous musicians that contributed to this album, but the principals are: Chip Davis (Producer, Mixer, Orchestration Writer, Conductor, Vocals, Drums), Arnie Roth (Violin Solo, Concertmaster), Robert F. Peterson (Violin), Samuel W. Formicola (Viola), John E. Acosta (Cello), Paul Fried (Flute/Alto Flute), Joel C. Peskin (Solo Alto Saxophone), David Boruff and Conald S. Markese (Alto Saxophone), Richard Todd (Horn) and Rick Baptist (Trumpet).

Whether you're a fan of classic Disney tunes, Mannheim Steamroller, or just an enjoyable instrumental album, Mannheim Steamroller Meets The Mouse has something for everyone. The trademark MS style of adding sounds, unusual instruments and they're own take on previously recorded songs brings an unusual, but refreshing, treatment to some of the more famous Disney movie tunes. The album opens with Chim Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins, a song I've always like from that movie. The MS treatment combines several elements, starting with a rather eerie intro that segues into a haunting harpsichord rendition of the melody, then gradually adding more and more layers of sound, using strings, percussion and keyboards to enhance the tune. There's even a touch of a renaissance sound that makes the song even more beautiful. I think MS has caught the true meaning of working as a chimney-sweep, and manages to convey the ups and downs of this way of life via music.

A total change of pace and sound is presented with Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah from Song of the South. Opening with the sound of birds and a light piano/keyboard instrumental of the melody, the song is soon engulfed in percussion and synthesizers which in turn play out the melody again. This is a happy song, and again MS has managed to capture the essence of this classic. Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid opens with the cry of seagulls and waves crashing on the beach, followed by a catchy instrumental that's not part of the original version. Moving into the melody with a xylophone sound, accompanied by strings and percussion, the original melody is presented in several different ways, but with a lot of improvisation in between. Great song!

I'm not entirely familiar with some of the newer Disney songs from movies like the Lion King, Mulan and Hercules, but I sure do enjoy the presentations on this album. Hakuna Matata from The Lion King is pretty much my first experience with the song, and if the movie version is anything like this one, its got to be great. Opening with a jungle beat and the sound of gourds being shaken, which last throughout the song, the vocal addition of the words Hakuna Matata, and what sound like African tribal grunts, layer over a xylophone type melody that is again layered with more instrumental sounds, but always with that beat in the background. This is a high energy number that sure makes you think of Africa, even if you've never seen the movie.

Next up is another song from Mary Poppins that every kid who's ever heard it just HAS to master - both singing and spelling it. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious starts out with a march type drum beat, deep synth and other percussion backing it up. The melody is presented with a high-pitched keyboard, which makes it sound rather different, but happy and bouncy. The kind of march sound flows through the whole song, with a little bit of a calliope thrown in, ending with the drum just the way it started.

I'm totally unfamiliar with the music from Hercules, so I've only heard the Mannheim Steamroller version of Go The Distance. If this is ANY indication of what the song was like in the movie, it must have been accompanied by a very powerful or emotional scene. The song is light and airy in the background, with the main theme coming through with a full orchestral sound that is absolutely breathtaking. This is one of the most beautiful non-rock songs I've heard in a very long time. For a complete change of pace, the intro to the next song really throws you off. It starts out with a variety of bird calls and folksy keyboards that are interspersed every now and then with a short little melody on harpsichord or flute. Then it hits you - that song that starts out with the words Born on a mountain top in Tennessee . . . You're listening to The Ballad of Davy Crockett. The full band sound doesn't join in until the chorus, which is when You're really sure, then fades out.

Horns and gourds open the next song, with some bells and percussion thrown in, and again You're guessing (unless You're looking at the back of the CD) when the high pitched synth joins in and you ALMOST know, but still aren't sure. Then off you go to the strains of Heigh-Ho from Snow White - with a definite western flavor to it! Its a very different treatment of the song, but still bouncy and fun. Love those synthesizers in there. Again I wasn't familiar with the next song, you've Got A Friend In Me from Toy Story, but the MS version is very bluesy, full of horns, synth and a great backbeat. I'm not sure what the original song sounds like, but this is a fun version with some unusual synth sounds that give it an extra tang.

I really, really like the way the next song is handled. Starting out with the tune Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, the strains of When You Wish Upon A Star from Pinocchio entwine themselves with Twinkle . . . for a really great version of the song. Using the xylophone for the melodies, while backed by strings at first, then a high synth keyboard plays out the melody of When You Wish . . . alternating with a flute playing Twinkle . . . and a full orchestral sound backing it all, this is a most impressive song indeed.

Reflections from Mulan is one more song I'm not familiar with, but the M.S. version starts with the sound of running water and a wooden flute, with a distant gong and bells in the background. When the percussion and keyboards start, the flute plays the melody at first, then joined by the strings and very oriental sounding notes. This is another lovely song that you don't need to have seen the movie to appreciate. I don't know how close this version is to the original, but this is one beautiful song - especially when the full orchestra joins in with the Taku drum sound, and the horns take over the melody. Quite impressive as it finishes the way it began.

The final song on the album is probably the most recognized Disney tune of all time, and certainly takes me back to my childhood. Again, you may not know the song when you first hear the lovely string intro accompanied by bells - until the melody begins to play out with a single violin and bell. Mickey Mouse March from The Mickey Mouse Club fills your ears with a haunting rendition of the song, the perfect pitch to indicate things are coming to an end. This song has one of the very few vocals on the album, with children singing toward the end Now its time to say goodbye to all our company/ M-I-C answered by Jimmy, one of the original Mouseketeers, with See ya real soon. Children K-E-Y . . . Jimmy, Why? Because we like you! Children M-O-U-S-E. This is all done with minor key background music that finishes out with a big sound of French horns, and the fading sound of the wind that closes out the album.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Mannheim Steamroller Meets The Mouse when I first heard about it and then received it. I've been a Mannheim Steamroller fan for many years, owning all of their Christmas albums and most of the Fresh Aire series. Still, it was hard to imagine how they would do for Disney songs what they did for Christmas songs. I'm happy to say that they did a GREAT job! All the songs are fully recognizable, but done so differently its like hearing them for the first time. Nothing can REPLACE the originals of all these wonderful songs, but this album gives them a whole new dimension. I highly recommend this album to everyone - no matter what kind of music you like. It evokes memories while creating new ones, and is masterfully done.