Chuck Mangione, who redefined feel-good music with his distinctive flugelhorn tone, died on July 22 at his Rochester home. He was 84.
The news was confirmed via a press release from a funeral home in Rochester, N.Y., on behalf of the Mangione family, who said they were “deeply saddened to share that Chuck peacefully passed away in his sleep at his home in Rochester.” No cause of death was given.
Mangione had a mellow tone, smooth precision, and cool melodies — a quiet groove in the soul pocket. His music was a fusion of pop and electric sounds of the ’70s, warm and cuddly like Linus’s blanket. The saxophonist’s onstage persona became his trademark, sporting a beard, long hair, and his signature brown fedora hat with a feathered band.
“Feels So Good,” one of his great hits from the double-platinum album of the same name, remains a staple on jazz and pop radio. It has been called one of the most recognized melodies since the Beatles’ recording of “Michelle.”
“It identified for a lot of people a song with an artist. Even though I had a pretty strong base audience that kept us out there, touring as often as we wanted to, that song just topped out there and took it to a whole other level,” Mangione told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008.
He won his first Grammy Award in 1977 for his Latin-tinged Best Instrumental composition “Bellavia,” which was named in honor of his mother. His second Grammy was for Best Pop Instrumental performance for the film soundtrack “The Children of Sanchez” in 1979.
His inspired music was selected for two Olympics — “Chase the Clouds” was used at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, and he played “Give It All You Got,” his theme for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY. He performed it live for a worldwide television audience during the closing ceremony. It was another Billboard Top 20 hit, and earned an Emmy Award.
Since the 1960s, Mangione released over 30 albums and enjoyed appearances on television shows such as “Magnum P.I.” He was introduced to a new younger generation when his caricature appeared on the Fox-TV animated series “King of the Hill,” appearing as a commercial spokesperson for Mega Lo Mart, where “shopping feels so good.” He paid homage to the series on his album “Everything for Love” with a track titled “Peggy Hill” (Chesky, 2000).
Charles Frank Mangione was born on Nov. 29, 1940, in Rochester, a few years after his older brother Gaspare. His parents, who were jazz enthusiasts, owned a local grocery store. Chuck began music lessons as an adolescent, adopting the trumpet. In high school, he started a jazz band with his brother, Gaspare, nicknamed Gap. To their surprise, a dream came true when they sat in with jazz legends Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Chuck, with pride and joy, made it known that Gillespie gave him a trumpet when he was just 15. He referred to the jazz icon as “my musical father.”
While attending the Eastman School of Music in Rochester (1958–’63), Mangione began playing the flugelhorn; he later became a faculty member. With Riverside Records during 1960–’61, he and his brother co-led the Mangione Brothers Sextet/Quintet, recording three albums. One of his compositions for the Sextet, “Something Different,” was hip enough to be recorded by Cannonball Adderley on his album “African Waltz” (Riverside, 1961).
Mangione is basically known as the smooth jazz guy, but remember: He was a member of one of the most influential jazz bands of the 20th century — Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He filled the trumpet chair that was previously held by such greats as Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Dorham, Bill Hardman, and Lee Morgan. That distinction immediately qualifies him as more than a mere smooth jazz musician.
It was never about him being able to play anything more explosive. He was more interested in reaching the public with his music, not just a segment of the population. His most prominent recording, “Feels So Good,” played in elevators, department stores, grocery stores and restaurants, which was his goal — to reach the mass public.
Many critics seem to have overlooked Mangione’s most meaningful and vibrant composition, the title song “Land of Make Believe,” sung by Esther Satterfield. The large ensemble also featured his brother Gap on electric piano and trumpeter Jon Faddis (Mercury, 1973). The song was a global anthem with igniting music that sparked the soulful spirit. “The Land of Make Believe” was the most riotous song recorded by Mangione — it was imaginative funk and the lyrics are Now for these unsettling times and will be for generations to come.
The lyrics were thought-provoking (rapped in wishful nursery rhythms): “I once asked the Wizard of Oz / For the secret of his land/He said, ‘Just take a look around here/Seven dwarves and Little Boy Blue/Uncle Remus and Snow White, too/’ (Now, just between us, that’s what’s known as integration.)/And Snoopy’s making smiles For grown-ups.” While everyone was listening to his smooth jazz, Mangione dropped a subtle revolutionary bomb with “Land of Make Believe.”
His signature brown felt hat, along with the score to “Feels So Good” and a treasure of photographs and albums, are in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, a donation that Mangione made to the institution in 2009.
In 2012, Mangione was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame, which quoted him as saying, “If you’re honest and play with love, people will sit down and listen … my music is the sum of all I have experienced.” (ABC News)
Mangione’s wife, Rosemarie, died in 2015. He is survived by his two daughters, Nancy and Diana; grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and his brother Gap.