(New Age) 'Mannheim Steamroller' :: Maxi Discography (21CD из 50CD) - 1974-2008, MP3, 320 kbps

… Mannheim Steamroller - 2000 - Bird Song
… Mannheim Steamroller - 2001 - Summer Song
… Mannheim Steamroller - 2003 - Autumn Song
… Mannheim Steamroller - ….. - Ocean Song
… Mannheim Steamroller - ….. - Night Song
… Mannheim Steamroller - ….. - Desert Song
The last three are mentioned in the liner notes for the existing Ambience CDs, but have not yet been released.

Louis F. Davis was born in 1947 in Sylvania, Ohio. He began piano lessons at age 4 and had composed his first piece of music at age 6. He graduated from the University of Michigan music school, specializing in bassoon and percussion.
After touring with the Norman Luboff Choir, he took a job with an Omaha, Nebraska advertising agency writing jingles. These included spots for a local bakery featuring the fictional trucker C. W. McCall. The spots were co-written with advertising writer William Fries, who became the voice of McCall. The spots were so popular, they were persuaded to begin writing non-advertising songs featuring McCall. The most famous of these is the 1975 "Convoy". The duo released a total of five albums between 1974 and 1979. Davis was named ASCAP Country Music Writer of the Year in 1976. During these early years, some of Davis' compositions that fell into the category of what was known as "New Music" were featured in a concert by the Voices of Mel Olson in the Witherspoon Hall of Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, USA. with Davis directing the community chorale for those songs.
Davis founded Mannheim Steamroller in 1974 to showcase his interest in fusing modern popular and classical techniques. The first Fresh Aire album was released shortly after. It was turned down by major record labels, so Davis founded American Gramaphone to release; this has been the label for all subsequent Mannheim Steamroller releases. A total of eight Fresh Aire albums were released, concluding with Fresh Aire 8 in 2000. Fresh Aire 7 was awarded the Grammy Award for Best New Age Recording in 1990.
Mannheim Steamroller released Mannheim Steamroller Christmas in 1984, and the group's subsequent Christmas music albums have sold tens of millions of copies and become among the most popular recordings in that genre.
Davis lives north of Omaha with his wife Trisha and his three children, Kelly, Evan and Elyse. He remains President and CEO of American Gramaphone Records.
'Mannheim Steamroller' actually began as an alias for record producer/composer Chip Davis. The name "Mannheim Steamroller" comes from an 18th-century German musical technique, Mannheim rocket or roller, an ascending arpeggio popularized by the Mannheim school of composition. Before the fame of Steamroller, Davis had been best known for creating the country music character "C. W. McCall" (of "Convoy" fame) for his friend Bill Fries. Even before Davis made McCall a star, he 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. 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. The result, Fresh Aire, was released in 1975 under the pseudonym Mannheim Steamroller, in the hopes of the album being a best seller. Fresh Aire II was subsequently released in 1977 and Fresh Aire III was released in 1979. The first four Fresh Aire albums constituted a "four seasons" exploration, with Fresh Aire being spring, Fresh Aire II being fall (less obviously than the others), Fresh Aire III being summer, and Fresh Aire IV being winter. All four of these albums maintained the blend of baroque classical music, light jazz, and a light sense of humor (Davis is credited as playing "more toys" on the Fresh Aire III album credits), and featuring Jackson Berkey' virtuosic keyboard work (for more examples, listen to Berkey's own Sunken Cathedral for master performances of classical works by Debussy, Persichetti and others). Davis and Berkey would use whatever instrument seemed appropriate to the piece, using toy piano on one piece and full pipe organ on another, with copious interleaving of piano and harpsichord. Davis then moved into exploring some other themes, with Fresh Aire V being subtitled "To the Moon," Fresh Aire VI exploring Greek mythology, Fresh Aire 7 being based on the number 7, and Fresh Aire 8 being based on the theme of infinity. A live tour of the early albums featured a prominent light show and multimedia components, along with spoken poetry by Almeda Berkey. While the music was slightly different from the album versions, the music was played in lockstep at each show, as it had to coordinate the live musicians with recorded tracks of strings and other orchestral parts.
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. In 1987, Davis collaborated with guitarist/composer Mason Williams for the album "Classical Gas". The music was composed entirely by Williams but produced and arranged by Davis. The album opens with a remake of Williams' 1968 instrumental "Classical Gas", which used the original arrangement.
But it was beginning in 1984 that Steamroller found its greatest fame. Davis released his first holiday album, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, featuring modern contemporary interpretations of Yuletide favorites. 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 had now become one of the most requested Christmas music artists of all time, in part by adopting a very radio-friendly approach that borders on Muzak. By the end of 1997, they had released a live album of Christmas music, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Live. 2001 saw the release of their fourth all-new Christmas album, Christmas Extraordinaire. Christmas Celebration, a compilation of favorite tracks from the previous studio albums (with one new song), was released in 2004. Their newest studio album of Christmas music Christmas Song was released in late 2007 and features guest vocals by Johnny Mathis and Olivia Newton-John.
Musically, as the 1990s progressed Davis moved into the mainstream of "New Age" music with a heavier reliance on synthetic instruments and less humor (titles like "Small Wooden Bach'ses" from Fresh Aire III were no more seen, let alone the creative use of a cricket on the same album or the Gregorian chant on Fresh Aire II). His music also began to hew more closely to the "light jazz" style that became prominent in the 1990s, especially with the Day Parts albums.
Steamroller had also developed a full-length theatrical motion picture based on their Christmas albums, but the plans fell through. Instead, the following year, they collaborated with Olivia Newton-John for yet another Christmas album, a mostly spoken-word recording scored with previously released material called The Christmas Angel: A Family Story. In 2003 they released a CD entitled Halloween.
In addition to their Fresh Aire and Christmas collections, Steamroller has released an album of Disney music (1999's Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse), one celebrating his American heritage (2003's American Spirit, which reunited Chip Davis with C.W. McCall and featured a remake of "Convoy"), and an album "Yellowstone" mixing prior Davis compositions and classical pieces by Ottorino Respighi.
Mannheim Steamroller's An American Christmas is a 12-hour nationally broadcast radio special program of music and narrated stories, heard on over 250 stations across the United States. The program is hosted by the group's founder Chip Davis and is produced and distributed each year by WestStar TalkRadio Network.

Странички в Википедии (на английском):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannheim_Steamroller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mannheim_Steamroller_Fresh_Aire_albums
Официальный сайт: http://www.mannheimsteamroller.com/

Внимание! Торрент обновлён 22.07.2010 г. ::
Добавлен альбом :: Romantic Themes (2005) . Всем приятного прослушивания…
Внимание! Торрент обновлён 17.02.2010 г. :: (1) Раздача расширена до максимальной дискографии :: выложены все доступные альбомы в максимальном качестве … (2) Для того чтобы не пришлось заново качать серию Fresh Aire – в головном каталоге создайте папку Mannheim Steamroller ...The Fresh Aire Series и переместите в нее все ранее скачанные альбомы этой серии… Приятного знакомства с волшебной музыкой…