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Chuck Mangione

For more than five decades, Chuck Mangione's love affair with music has been characterized by his boundless energy, unabashed enthusiasm, and pure joy that radiates from the stage. Mangione first attracted attention with his brother, Gap, in a mainstream jazz band, The Jazz Brothers, in which he played trumpet much like that of the man who he refers to as his musical father-Dizzy Gillespie. In fact Dizzy gave Chuck an 'updo' horn just like his own. Chuck's years with the Jazz Brothers overlapped with his attending the Eastman School of Music and eventually resulted in his solo album debut.

Chuck left home to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, assuming the trumpet chair that had belonged to such great players as Clifford Brown, Kenny Dorham, Bill Hardman, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. Another important step in Mangione's career development was his return to the Eastman School of Music as director of the school's Jazz Ensemble. His "Friends & Love" concert with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra was recorded live and featured "Hill Where the Lord Hides." This led to a recording contract with a major label, Mercury Records, and his first Grammy nomination. Those early years with Mercury culminated in the title tune of one of Mangione's most popular albums. Land of Make Believe, another Grammy nominee, Mangione then signed with A&M Records and delivered two extremely successful releases in one year, Chase The Clouds Away, which was used as background music during the telecast of the 1976 Olympic Games; and Bellavia ("beautiful way"), named to honor his mother, which won Mangione his first Grammy award. During the late 1970's, Chuck received more awards and accolades for his recordings. He reached new heights with his mega-hit single and album, Feels So Good. The 1980 Mangione entry in Current Biography called "Feels So Good" the most recognized melody since the Beatles' "Michelle." The Children of Sanchez double-album soundtrack won the Hollywood Foreign

For more than five decades, Chuck Mangione's love affair with music has been characterized by his boundless energy, unabashed enthusiasm, and pure joy that radiates from the stage.

Mangione first attracted attention with his brother, Gap, in a mainstream jazz band, The Jazz Brothers, in which he played trumpet much like that of the man who he refers to as his musical father—Dizzy Gillespie. In fact, Dizzy gave Chuck an "updo" horn just like his own. Chuck's years with the Jazz Brothers overlapped with his attending the Eastman School of Music and eventually resulted in his solo album debut.

Another important step in Mangione's career development was his return to the Eastman School of Music as director of the school's Jazz Ensemble. His Friends & Love concert with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra was recorded live and featured "Hill Where the Lord Hides." This led to a recording contract with a major label, Mercury Records, and his first Grammy nomination.

Those early years with Mercury culminated in the title tune of one of Mangione's most popular albums, Land of Make Believe, another Grammy nominee. Mangione then signed with A&M Records and delivered two extremely successful releases in one year: Chase The Clouds Away, which was used as background music during the telecast of the 1976 Olympic Games; and Bellavia ("beautiful way"), named to honor his mother, which won Mangione his first Grammy Award.

During the late 1970s, Chuck received more awards and accolades for his recordings. He reached new heights with his mega-hit single and album, Feels So Good. The 1980 Mangione entry in Current Biography called Feels So Good the most recognized melody since the Beatles' "Michelle."

The Children of Sanchez double-album soundtrack won the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe Award, then earned Mangione a second Grammy Award. In 1980, maximum impact was achieved in front of an "intimate" television audience of several hundred million when Chuck's "Give It All You Got" was heard around the world as the theme of the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, which he performed live at the closing ceremonies.

Mangione was also busy with personal projects during the 1980s. He hosted an 8-hour concert featuring jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Chick Corea, which benefited the Italian Earthquake Relief Fund.

The '80s were exceptionally full years for Chuck. Having signed with Columbia Records, he released several albums, including Love Notes, Journey To A Rainbow, Disguise, and Save Tonight For Me. Another highlight was working out with the New York Yankees at their spring training camp at the invitation of his friend and fan, George Steinbrenner. Chuck was often seen playing the National Anthem at Yankee Stadium and All-Star games in San Francisco and Chicago.

There was also Salute to Chuck Mangione, a one-hour TV special hosted by Dick Clark; numerous performing and conducting dates with symphony orchestras across the country; plus television interviews on The Tonight Show, Larry King, Soul Train, Solid Gold, and many others.

In 1989, Chuck released two live albums: The Boys From Rochester, featuring Steve Gadd, Gap Mangione, Joe Romano, and Frank Pullara; plus a double album, Chuck Mangione Live at the Village Gate.

Following these releases, and more than 25 years of one-nighters around the world, Chuck Mangione stopped playing. Many people point to the death of Dizzy Gillespie as the event that propelled Mangione back into music.

In 1994, Chuck scheduled a whirlwind of activity that included recording sessions for two new albums, a series of nightclub performances by himself and other jazz favorites which featured his "Cat in the Hat" matinees for kids (they continue to draw SRO audiences and raves from critics, parents, and kids alike). Four major orchestra dates in upstate New York helped create an endowment fund in honor of his father, Papa Mangione, and musical father, Dizzy Gillespie, for the Rochester School of the Arts.

Chuck is currently caricatured on the Fox TV hit show King Of The Hill. He is the celebrity spokesman for "Mega-lo-Mart" and scored the music for the 1998 Valentine's Day episode.

When Chuck performed in Poland for the 1999 Film and Jazz Festival, his composition "Children of Sanchez" brought the audience to its feet. Unbeknownst to the composer, the piece had become somewhat of an anthem during the struggle for democracy, and many in the audience were in tears, holding their hands over their hearts.

In the year 2000, Chuck made his first-ever appearance in Korea to SRO audiences, where Feels So Good has been the top requested instrumental hit for the past twenty years. He returned to Seoul in 2001 and was performing there when 9/11 happened.

Chuck has recorded two albums for Chesky Records: The Feelings Back and Everything For Love. His 60th Birthday Bash Concert at the Eastman Theater in Rochester, New York raised over $50,000 for St. John's Nursing Home.

Recently, Smooth Jazz stations throughout the U.S. recognized Chuck Mangione's Feels So Good as their all-time #1 song.

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Chuck Mangione: Friend For Lovers

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 26, 2025

This article first appeared on All About Jazz in September 2000. Chuck Mangione is best known as the trumpet player and composer of that ubiquitous tune, which taught millions worldwide that music “Feels So Good." But Chuck Mangione boasts serious Jazz chops: Before flying solo, he cut his teeth in the Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson big bands and in Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, where he assumed the trumpet chair previously occupied by Clifford ...

Catching Up With

Chuck Mangione: Back On Track

by Michael Ricci
July 26, 2025

This article first appeared on All About Jazz in June 1999... without embedded videos. For three decades, Chuck Mangione's infectious energy, unbridled enthusiasm, and pure joy have defined his deep passion for music. Born and raised in Rochester, New York, he first garnered attention playing with the Jazz Brothers alongside his older brother, Gap. Chuck later left home to join Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, stepping into the trumpet chair once held by Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, ...

Album Review

Coleman Mellett: Sing You a Brand New Song

by Fran Kursztejn
February 19, 2025

If guitarist & singer-songwriter Coleman Mellett was “known" at all, it's for his brief yet exciting contributions to Chuck Mangione's ensemble. He played in Mangione's band between 1999 and the eve of his shocking death in 2009, along with 49 other passengers and crew members on the Colgan Flight 3047. His sensitive, versatile strumming challenged bandmates with a unique blend of jazz, folk and blues styles. The small catalogue of his officially released work reveals an inventive voice both inside ...

415

Film Review

Chuck Mangione: Friends and Love

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 2007

Chuck Mangione Friends and Love Gates Music 2007

In the decade 1970-80 composer/arranger/trumpeter Chuck Mangione was hotter than a four-alarm fire, drawing large audiences to his concerts and producing two Grammy Award-winning albums that combined elements of Jazz, pop, New Age and even classical music in performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and other ensembles. One of those concerts, Friends and Love, taped in 1970 at the Eastman Theatre and telecast on ...

154

Album Review

Chuck Mangione: The Feeling's Back

Read "The Feeling's Back" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 1999

Chuck Mangione, who all but disappeared from the radar screens after his enormously successful run of best-selling albums in the mid- to late-'70s, says “the feeling's back" -- and, if we are to judge from his even-tempered debut for Chesky Records, so is Chuck, who seems to be playing his dulcet flugel as well as ever.

He's always had a well-developed ear for beguiling melodies, and that too seems as keen as ever. While one may question the music's Jazz ...

Obituary

Chuck Mangione (1940-2025)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 28, 2025

Chuck Mangione, a trumpeter, flugelhornist and keyboardist who, along with George Benson, and a few other jazz musicians, successfully crossed over to pop in the late 1970s and pioneered what became known as smooth jazz, died on July 22, He was 84. Mangione, along with his brother, Gap, was born in Rochester, N.Y., a region with a significant Italian population that produced a sizable number of jazz greats. The Mangiones began their recording careers in a group they formed in ...
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