Christmas Extraordinaire
Amazon.com
Chip Davis’s Mannheim Steamroller hasn’t lost any ground in the six years since their last Yuletide offering. Christmas Extraordinare is another innovative and heartfelt collection of seasonal treasures played on a combination of 18th-century instruments and modern-day synthesizers, drums, and electric guitars. While not the first to marry different ages of musical instruments, Davis and his cohorts use them with imagination and an intensity that gives new life and drama to this rather inert genre. For material, Mannheim Steamroller asked their fans to choose their favorite holiday selections and vote on their Web site. The results of the poll are a fine mix of old and new–with slightly more emphasis on the modern–ranging from the bracing “Fum, Fum, Fum,” a traditional Catalan carol, to Tchaikovsky’s “Faeries” from The Nutcracker. Mannheim Steamroller imbues this beloved song with an almost militaristic edge, grounding it with an ominous tuba that gives the usually fey “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” an edgy tension. “Winter Wonderland” is a spectacular work, bordering on prog rock, as if Emerson, Lake & Palmer had re-formed to whip up a winter blizzard gone amok. While most of the Mannheim Steamroller’s Christmas albums are largely instrumental, Davis has employed the considerable talents of University of Michigan’s Glee Club to sing on “O Tannenbaum,” respectfully fading their elegant, full vocals around the pristine voice of Johnny Mathis, elevating this German carol to a cinematic peak. Don’t miss out on the clever liner notes, which give the reader a whimsical, anecdotal history of the 12 songs. –Jaan Uhelszki
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3 Responses
This album is breathtaking. I have been a fan of their Christmas music for years and I cannot comprehend looking at my tree or opening presents without their music playing. After the rather strange “Christmas Angel” album, this is a great comeback.
I agree with several other reviewers that I could have done without Johnny Mathis singing “O Tannenbaum.” I think it would have been much better as simply an intrumental. It was a bit startling to suddenly hear a solo voice when the only other voices heard before were those in choirs.
Even so, I recommend it. It is beautiful.
I wrote a review of this album a few weeks back, when I first received as a freebie from American Gramaphone, and at the time I had awarded it 5 stars. Now, after several listenings, I’m afraid I’ll have to knock off a star or two. Don’t get me wrong, if you liked Mannheim’s previous albums, you’ll probably like this, but it definitely lacks something.
It starts off with a typical, almost cliche Mannheim flourish, by taking Handel’s beautiful and majestic Hallelujah chorus and devolving it into something that sounds closer to “Chariots of Fire.” Good music if you’re running track, I guess, but is it Christmas… I don’t know. Still, you should enjoy the energy of this opening piece while it lasts, because the next five tracks are little more than lullabyes. I’ve always liked Chip Davis’ softer pieces, and he does them well here, but he throws too many of them together. After several tracks, what should have sounded nostalgic just sounds depressingly dreary. “Faeries” (from The Nutcracker) almost seems as it wants to be this album’s equivalent of “Little Drummer Boy,” (from “A Fresh Aire Christmas”), but it never builds up enough, which is unfortunate since it could helped liven things up.
“Fum Fum Fum” remains my favorite piece. It gives a much needed shot of energy to the album, and it relies on real Renaissance instruments, rather than Chip’s tired MIDI instruments. If more of the album had sounded like this, I would have to give it five stars.
Chip claims to have written this album in only a few months. If that were entirely true, it would be easier to forgive some of its shortcomings. But the arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne” which appears on this album is the same as what he had done on his Impressions album… he merely changed some of the synthesizer sounds and added a choir. Fortunately, it’ll be new to most people since Impressions didn’t sell particularly well, and it’s a good arrangement– but it still feels as though he cheated (especially since the big yellow sticker on the album cover proclaims, “ALL NEW MUSIC”.)
So should you buy it? Yes, if you already listened to their previous albums and enjoyed them. But if you’ve only just heard of Mannheim Steamroller and want to try one of their Christmas albums, you really should start with “A Fresh Aire Christmas,” which is a truly great album, and then come back to this one later.
Having enjoyed their efforts over the years, this one is in my humble offering, the finest to date!
This is fusion music at its best–jazz, classical, folk, new age, all woven into tasteful and well thought out, produced and performed works.
The “Hallelujah” effort is breathtaking! Outset gave me reserve to tamper with such, but The Steamroller pulls it off with delight and reverence! Their renditions of “Away in A Manger” “Do You hear what I hear” and my favorite: “Faeries.”
The addition of UofM Glee Club and Johnny Mathis are nice touch, which adds to the enjoyment and variety. This is just happy, relaxing, reverent updates of scores we all like to hear.
Provides nice variety to pop into the CD and place on “Scramble” mode, jumping from CD track to CD track, providing bit of every style.
Highly recommend!