This was followed by A Fresh Aire Christmas (1988) and Christmas in the Aire (1995), which showcased creative approaches to old carols, as well as some new carol-like compositions. Steamroller found its greatest fame beginning in 1984 when Davis released his first holiday album, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, featuring modern contemporary interpretations of Yuletide favorites. The album opens with a remake of Williams' 1968 instrumental " Classical Gas", which used the original arrangement. The music was composed entirely by Williams but produced and arranged by Davis. In 1987, Davis collaborated with guitarist/composer Mason Williams for the album Classical Gas.
In 1986, Mannheim Steamroller released music composed for a PBS special called Saving the Wildlife, which featured one track from Fresh Aire VI and twelve new tracks. While the music was slightly different from the album versions, it was played in lockstep at each show, as it had to coordinate the live musicians with recorded tracks of strings and other orchestral parts. A live tour of the early albums featured a prominent light show and multimedia components, along with spoken poetry by Almeda Berkey. In 1981 Davis released Fresh Aire Interludes, an album that compiled Berkey's ten piano interludes from the first four Fresh Aire albums.ĭavis then moved into exploring some other themes, with Fresh Aire V subtitled "To the Moon," Fresh Aire VI exploring Greek mythology, Fresh Aire 7 based on the number 7, and Fresh Aire 8 based on the theme of infinity.
STEAM ROLLER FULL
Davis and Berkey used whatever instrument seemed appropriate to the piece, using a toy piano on one piece and a full pipe organ on another, with copious interleaving of piano and harpsichord. All four of these albums maintained the blend of baroque classical music, light jazz, and rock, and featured Jackson Berkey's virtuosic keyboard work. The first four Fresh Aire albums constituted an exploration of the four seasons, with Fresh Aire being spring, Fresh Aire II being fall, Fresh Aire III being summer, and Fresh Aire IV being winter. Fresh Aire II was subsequently released in 1977, and Fresh Aire III was released in 1979. The result, Fresh Aire, was published in 1975 under the pseudonym Mannheim Steamroller. Since no major label would handle its distribution, Davis founded his own music label, American Gramaphone (a play on the classical record label Deutsche Grammophon), to release the album. Įven before the height of McCall's popularity, Davis produced an unusual album of classical music performed entirely by Davis and musical collaborator and keyboardist Jackson Berkey, using electric bass (played by Eric Hansen) and synthesizers.įresh Aire and American Gramaphone Davis was named Country Music Writer of the Year in 1976, a genre he is not fond of.
STEAM ROLLER SERIES
The song was based on the character created by Fries and music composed by Davis for a series of Clio winning ads for Metz Baking Company for their Old Home Bread product. The name "Mannheim Steamroller" comes from an 18th-century German musical technique, Mannheim roller ( German: Mannheimer Walze), a crescendo passage having a rising melodic line over an ostinato bass line, popularized by the Mannheim school of composition.īefore the fame of Steamroller, Davis had been best known for collaborating with his friend Bill Fries on the songs of the country music character " C. Mannheim Steamroller began as an alias for record producer and composer Chip Davis. 2.6 Chip Davis – Day Parts series and solo albums.Except for a few boiler tubes and a new piston for the steam engine, the roller is presented as it was found in Iowa. The roller, Construction Number 12442, spent most of its working life in Des Moines, Iowa. The roller is powered by a two cylinder steam engine and is equipped with an auxiliary steam motor for “power steering.” These rollers left the factory as works of art, witness the gold leaf pin striping and fine filigree on the cast yoke of the back roller, and the proud name on the coal bunker. It was built to be coal fired with the large, flat coal “bunker” over the front roller. This seven ton steam roller was built by the Buffalo Springfield Roller Company in 1924.
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