Look out, Santa, Chip Davis is gaining on you. . . .
Davis, the composer-performer and general creative mind behind Mannheim Steamroller, has so many Christmas projects in the bag or in progress - CDs, books and performances - he's beginning to rival Saint Nick as a dispenser of seasonal cheer.His Santalike goal is to help you "create new traditions with your family," Davis said during a promotional stop in Salt Lake City.
Like the Jolly One, Davis must be wrapped up in the holidays pretty much all the year 'round. It makes you wonder: Does he employ troops of busy elves in Omaha, where his American Gramaphone enterprises are based?
Consider this list of his Christmas-related projects; check it twice, if you'd like:
In the mid-1980s, Louis "Chip" Davis Jr. and friends helped revitalize the Christmas-music market with "Mannheim Steamroller Christmas," a crystalline CD that updated, with clever antique-yet-modern arrangements, such airs and carols as "Deck the Halls" and "Stille Nacht (Silent Night)." That album was followed by "A Fresh Aire Christmas" (1988), "Christmas in the Aire" (1995) and, last year, a live recording. They are among the best-selling holiday albums of all time.
The CDs spawned Mannheim Steamroller's annual holiday concert tours, dazzling showcases of music, light and video. These have been so popular in Salt Lake City that in years past the band has taken over the Capitol Theatre for most of a week for a series of shows.
This year Davis is expanding his concept. Two family oriented concerts, at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 1 and 2, will be presented in the E Center to accommodate an audience of thousands more - of all ages, he hopes. A Christmas Village will occupy one end of the arena, with dozens of costumed characters - toy soldiers and such - on hand to add to the fun. Mannheim Steamroller is presented in concert by Magicworks West. Tickets, priced from $21 to $46, are available at the E Center box office, at Smith'sTix outlets or can be charged by phone at 467-TIXX.
New to the CD lineup is "The Christmas Angel," a tale narrated by Davis and singer Olivia Newton-John, backed by musical tracks mostly from those earlier Christmas albums and "Fresh Aire 4," Mannheim Steamroller's winter-themed collection.
"The Christmas Angel" is also the soundtrack to a TV special to be broadcast on NBC (Ch. 5/KSL) at 1 p.m. on Dec. 19 - the Saturday before the big holiday. This will be a skating extravaganza starring such favorite performers as Dorothy Hamill, Elvis Stojko and Rudy Galindo. "The Christmas Angel" is also the centerpiece of a 12-city ice-show tour on the East Coast.
Also new is a pop-up storybook/CD combo called "My Little Christmas Tree," presenting eight Christmas stories by Davis and Michael O'Rourke, illustrations by Nan Brooks and music by Mannheim Steamroller. The idea is to set up a pop-up scene and read the accompanying bedtime story aloud to, or with, the little ones, backed by music on the CD player.
Davis said "The Christmas Angel" and "My Little Christmas Tree" are attempts to spark the spirit of Christmas at home.
"Things go so fast today that unless you create some sort of opportunity or reason to sit down, it's difficult to have just some normal" family oriented Christmas activities, he said. "So that's what these things are: To create an excuse to read stories to your kids or listen to stories - and 20 years from now they might get that CD out and have a whole lot of memories."
Davis has a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old at home. When reading bedtime stories to them, "I always ended up playing some music or sound effects in the background. So I thought: `Somebody really ought to make a product like that.'
"Duh! Why not me? So I made this," he said, pulling out a colorful copy of "My Little Christmas Tree."
Eight of the little soundtracks match scenes in an accompanying popup book - "because, you know, kids like popups," he reasoned. Most of the melodies, like "Coventry Carol" and "The Holly and the Ivy," are familiar, but the stories are original and tailored to children. "We Three Kings," for instance, is not strictly about the three kings of the East who followed the new star in the sky to Bethlehem. "It's about the baby camel Omar, going on a journey with his mommy camel, taking one of the three kings," Davis said. "Everything's written from a child's point of view."
"The Christmas Angel," too, is based on a tale conceived by Davis. Turned into verses a la Clement Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas," it is narrated on the album, over Mannheim Steamroller music, by Davis and Newton-John. "I was fortunate to get Olivia to do it with me, and she sounds great on it," he said. "She has a little girl, too."
The story begins in the village of Hamler on Christmas Eve. A Grinch-ish Gargon appears and steals the Christmas Angel from atop the community tree, threatening the celebration and gift-giving. A young mother vows to rescue the angel.
Davis and Newton-John will co-host the NBC TV special, which features more than a dozen Olympic skaters, portraying "everything from toys to good guys, lost souls, angels, all kinds of things," Davis said. "It's really cool."
Of specific interest to Utahns, of course, are the twin E Center concerts by Mannheim Steamroller. Davis sees it as an event for the whole family, with a range of ticket prices to reflect that. "This is definitely a show geared to Mom and Dad and a 3-year-old," he said.
His concept: a Christmas experience instead of just a Christmas concert, Davis said. "The minute they walk in the door they're greeted by 50 characters in costume - snowmen, gingerbread men, elves, toy soldiers" - and a Christmas village circled by a train. And unlike most concert situations, cameras are welcome, he said.
Davis acknowledges that Christmas has taken over much of his life - but not all of it. The success of his holiday projects is a double-edged sword, somewhat akin to the typecasting some actors have to go through, he said.
But before "Christmas in the Aire" there was "Fresh Aire," a series of thematic instrumental albums Mannheim Steamroller began creating in the 1970s. The first releases, based around the seasons of the year, were geared to audiophile listeners in the age of vinyl records. CDs and the rise of "new age" music came later. "Fresh Aire VII" - with its a melodic contemplations of the mystic number seven - nabbed a Grammy Award in 1990.
"We sold about 5 million records of `Fresh Aire,' " Davis said, "but about 16 million of the Christmas albums." So, yes, his Christmas audience is large. But he has not forsaken "Fresh Aire."
"I have half of `Fresh Aire 8' recorded with the London Symphony," Davis said. The theme this time is infinity - tip the number 8 on its side and you get the symbol for infinity. It is due to be released next August and will come out in 5.1 digital surround sound, which is becoming more widely available to consumers via such equipment as DVD home theaters.
He plans to explore eight topics, such as M.C. Escher's illustration of a perpetual waterfall - and the Big Bang. With sound effects and music, Mannheim Steamroller will describe the whizzing trajectories of electrons and matter (if you have surround sound, "planets will go right through your head," he said), and the spirals of galaxies and the universe itself.
Davis and his musicians are working on a Disney-themed collection, "Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse," and he also plans to clean up, remaster and re-release all of the older "Fresh Aire" albums. He's re-recorded the chirps of the 17-year cicadas for "Fresh Aire 3." "Fresh Aire 1" will have window-rattling new thunderstorms.
"You'd get a kick out of this," Davis said. "I live on a 100-acre ranch in Nebraska, and out in the forest I have four condenser mikes mounted with a thousand-foot wire that comes right straight into my studio. They are 400 feet apart, so when thunder hits you'll hear the time shift from channel to channel. If you're sitting in the middle you'll feel like you've just been hit by a clap of thunder."
So yes, Santa, Chip Davis is a believer in Christmas traditions, new and old. But his other enthusiasms probably mean your job is safe.