ATLANTA: American two-time Grammy-winning jazz flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione, best known for his 1970s cross-over hit “Feels So Good,” died this week at age 84 at his home in Rochester, New York.
The prolific musician and composer – whose career spanned five decades and 30 albums – died in his sleep on Tuesday, a local funeral home said.
“Chuck’s love affair with music has been characterized by his boundless energy, unabashed enthusiasm, and pure joy that radiated from the stage,” his family said in a statement to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle newspaper.
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Mangione showed his appreciation for his audiences by sitting at the edge of the stage after his concerts, signing autographs for fans who stayed to meet him and the band, it said.
Born Charles Frank Mangione in 1940 in Rochester, he was a virtuoso flugelhorn and trumpet player. He grew up in a household where his father exposed him to the jazz greats of the 1950s, including Dizzy Gillespie, a family friend who dined with them frequently.
He began taking music lessons at age 8, and by the time he was a teenager, Gillespie was so impressed by his musical prowess that he gave Mangione one of his trademark “upswept” trumpets.
His composition “Chase The Clouds Away” was featured at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, while his “Give It All You Got” was the theme music for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.
Mangione’s biggest hit was his 1977 single “Feels So Good,” which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammys.
His album by the same name is a staple on smooth jazz radio stations.
Mangione won two Grammys out of 14 nominations – the first in 1977 for best instrumental composition for “Bellavia,” named in honor of his mother. In 1979 he won in the best pop instrumental performance category for “The Children of Sanchez.” The latter, a soundtrack for the movie of the same name, also won a Golden Globe.
In the late 1990s, Mangione’s music attracted new fans after he played himself on the Fox TV cartoon show “King of the Hill” as a celebrity spokesman for the fictional “Mega-lo-mart,” with the slogan “shopping feels so good.” He also scored the music for the 1998 Valentine’s Day episode.
-Rich McKay
