Mannheim Steamroller

CHRISTMAS LIVE

(American Gramaphone)

At their best, Chip Davis's synthesizers-and-kitchen-sink ensemble (any orchestra instrument you can think of plus krummhorns, camel bells, dry ice, and more) make Christmas carols swing and rock. But when they take on the likes of "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," it sounds like mere new-age doodling. This live album doesn't offer much that's new -- mostly it's tracks from their three studio Christmas releases, sounding pretty much the way they always do. Still, you get more of their best here than on any one of the studio efforts: "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Wassail, Wassail," "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," and "Stille Night" (where you can just about hear the lonely, windswept plains of Nebraska, where Davis is based). Sadly absent: "Deck the Halls," "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," with its lilting trumpet, "The Little Drummer Boy" (redeemed from Andy Williams), and "O Holy Night," moving even without Luciano.

-- Jeffrey Gantz

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