Famed musician and Rochester native Chuck Mangione, best known for his jazz-pop single “Feels So Good,” has died.
He passed away "peacefully in his sleep at home" on Tuesday, according to his family. Mangione was 84.
The performer and composer’s musical career spanned six decades, more than 30 albums, two Grammy Awards and garnered him international acclaim. And he was among the initial inductees to the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
"He had this national presence, but he was always a Rochesterian first," said Jack Whittier, the Hall of Fame's board president. "And in his acceptance speech that year, you know, he even said, 'Of all the awards that I've received, Mama and Papa Mangione would have been proudest of this one, because it's from Rochester.' And that really said it all in where his mindset was, and where his family's mindset was."
The induction ceremony was "one of, if not the last times he performed publicly," Whittier said. "And he was spectacular."
Charles Frank Mangione was born in Rochester in 1940. His Italian parents were avid jazz fans whose dinner guests included the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Jimmy Cobb, Kai Winding, Sarah Vaughn and Carmen McRae. And his dad would take his sons to local clubs and concerts.
He took piano lessons starting when he was 8 years old but switched to trumpet two years later.
Gillespie would become his mentor, or as Mangione referred to him, “my musical father.” And the jazz legend was reportedly so impressed with the young prodigy that he gave him one of his signature upswept horns when Mangione was 15.
He and older brother Gap Mangione began playing professionally when they were in high school, forming the Jazz Brothers quintet in 1958 and playing “neo-bebop.”
Mangione attended Eastman School of Music, graduating in 1963, and then taught music in Rochester before leaving for New York City in 1965.
He lamented the lack of jazz music offerings at the school, at the time. But he reportedly later wished he had taken more advantage of the opportunities there. It was at Eastman that he began playing flugelhorn, reportedly saying: “They needed somebody to play it, and I decided that it suited my personality; it was darker and mellower than the trumpet.”
In New York, he played with the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Winding and with Blakey’s Jazz Messengers — which is credited with influencing his music going forward. He returned to Rochester in 1968, taught at the Hochstein School of Music and, later, at Eastman. Throughout, he focused on building up jazz offerings and ensembles from the high school to college-level.
Jeff Tyzik, now the Rochester Philharmonic's principal pops conductor, credits Mangione for first bringing him to Rochester in 1969.
"Somebody sent me a Chuck Mangione recording, and when I listened to that, I was inspired by his music enough to want to come to Rochester and study at the Eastman School where he was teaching," Tyzik said.
Tyzik played lead trumpet in the jazz ensemble that Mangione directed. That was 1969. The next year, Mangione got invited to guest conduct the RPO — performing his music. The 1970 “Friends and Love” concert sold out Eastman Theater, was recorded by WXXI and later turned into a two-record set, and a Grammy nomination. A later concert with RPO would air nationally on PBS. And Tyzik recalled: "It was a life-changing event for me, to watch somebody who was so creative with a symphony orchestra."
"I sat up in the balcony and I looked down and I said, 'That's what I want to do,'" Tyzik recalled.
Mangione went on to appear on The Merv Griffin Show in 1974. He won his first Grammy in 1976 (he ultimately would win two and receive 14 nominations). His music was featured during the Olympic Games that year. By 1978-79, he was being named Jazz Artist of the Year, Instrumentalist of the Year, Top Fusion Artist and Composer/Arranger of the Decade by some of the top magazines in the industry. And he composed and performed the theme song for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid: "Give It All You Got."
Tyzik recalled touring with him, playing Hollywood Bowl to 18,000 fans, or separate dawn and dusk concerts at Red Rocks in Colorado, to 10,000 each time.
"But he was a hometown boy," Tyzik said. "And early, in the years when his dad was alive, you know, his dad traveled with us, and he'd be backstage, with a grill, making sausage and peppers. I mean, it was crazy. But he kind of never lost his Rochester roots."
Tyzik was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2012, alongside Mangione.
"You know, a lot of people view (Mangione) as the flugelhorn player with the hat," Whittier said. "And he's a terrific player, but also just an amazing composer."
His music was jazz with classical, pop, even rock components, and influenced by the "hard-bop" and African and Latin rhythmic qualities from his years with Blakey.
"His music really transcended one genre, and ... I think that was what was unique about his music, composition style, and his contribution to the music world," Whittier said. "It was, it was something different."
Tyzik calls it simply "Mangione music" — likening him to Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin.
"Bernstein wrote, you know, he wrote shows like 'West Side Story' and 'On the Town,' but he also wrote classical music, and he had jazz elements in his music, as well as did Gershwin," Tyzik said.
As did Mangione. Said Tyzik: "He was totally unique."
His music gained international recognition from Poland — where his "Children of Sanchez" composition became something of an anthem during the pro-democracy, ant-communism Solidarity movement — to Korea, where "Feels So Good" was reportedly the top-requested instrumental song for decades.
"Since the beginning, there have been people who felt that he spoke personally to them with his music," niece Ardis Mangione-Lindley said. "His music has been around for so many years, and it is so connected with the events of our lives."
When she meets people, and they learn her last name, she said, it often prompts a comment or a story about her uncle: "I was at "Friends and Love." I was at that "Together" concert. I was so inspired by the money he raised with the "Tarantella" concert for the Italian earthquake victims. I was part of "Children of Sanchez," and that music was just overwhelming to me. I went on my first date, and we danced to "Feels So Good."'
The lifelong Yankees fan played the national anthem multiple times at Yankee Stadium, and he was honored with a one-hour TV special “Salute to Chuck Mangione” hosted by Dick Clark in the 1980s. In recent years, he even had recurring cameos on the animated Fox TV show “King of the Hill.”
"Chuck’s love affair with music has been characterized by his boundless energy, unabashed enthusiasm, and pure joy that radiated from the stage," Mangione's family wrote in his obituary. "His appreciation for his loyal worldwide fans was genuine as evidenced by how often he would sit at the edge of the stage after a concert no matter how long it took to sign autographs for the fans who stayed to meet him and the band."
Mangione is survived by two daughters, his brother, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. His wife, Rosemarie, died earlier.
Includes reporting by staff writer Patrick Hosken.
