
Chuck Mangione obituary
Brought up listening to jazz greats such as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, he helped to create what become known as 'smooth jazz', a kind of easy-listening popular music that one might find oneself listening to in lifts or airport lounges, inflected with jazzy phrasing and deploying jazz instruments. It was Mangione's flugelhorn that played the haunting theme of Feels So Good, his biggest hit, which reached No 4 on the US chart in 1978, but the track also featured electric and wah-wah guitars, a funky bassline and a danceable drum-beat. The track's parent album (featuring an extended version of Feels So Good) soared to No 2 on its respective chart.
Mangione attributed its success to the fact that the airwaves had been saturated with the Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. He said: 'Radio programmers couldn't figure out what to put on instead and when somebody edited Feels So Good from nine minutes down to three, they instantly started playing it as an alternative to what were the current top songs.'
His music's broad, if unchallenging, appeal also made it suitable for public occasions. The gently-lilting beat and mix of brass and woodwinds in Chase the Clouds Away featured at the 1976 summer Olympics in Montreal, while for the 1980 winter games in Lake Placid, New York, the ABC Sports TV network adopted his composition Give It All You Got.
He won the first of his two Grammys – he received 13 Grammy nominations during his career – for Bellavia, a slow and moody piece, which drew its title from his mother's maiden name. He collected the second in 1979, for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, for his soundtrack to the film The Children of Sanchez, which starred Anthony Quinn.
Born in Rochester, New York, Chuck (Charles) was the son of Nancy (nee Bellavia), who worked for a home appliances manufacturer, and Frank Mangione, who worked for the Eastman Kodak Company. Later his parents opened a family grocery store, Mangione's Market.
Both were enthusiastic jazz fans, and they signed Chuck up for music lessons at the age of eight. He began learning the piano, but after seeing Michael Curtiz's film Young Man With a Horn (in which Kirk Douglas played a character based on cornet player Bix Beiderbecke) he switched to trumpet. His older brother, Gaspare (nicknamed Gap), was learning the piano and the brothers would practise together at home.
Both boys would often be taken by their father to the Ridge Crest Inn in the Rochester suburb of Irondequoit. It was a well-known jazz venue where Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis had all played. Mangione told Jazz Times magazine how their father would introduce the brothers to artists such as Dizzy Gillespie and they'd be invited to sit in with the band. He then explained how 'my dad would invite everyone to our house for spaghetti and home-made wine … This week it would be Dizzy, the next week Carmen McRae, then Sarah Vaughan, Art Blakey, Kai Winding.'
By the time Chuck enrolled in Rochester's Eastman School of Music in 1958, where he studied the trumpet and flugelhorn, he and Gap had already been playing in their own high school quintet, the Jazz Brothers. Before Chuck graduated with a bachelor's degree in music in 1963, the Jazz Brothers had already recorded three albums for the renowned Riverside jazz label.
In 1965, he did stints with the big bands of Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson, before being recruited for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. He recalled how 'Art was looking around for a horn player and he called Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy said, 'Do you remember that kid from Rochester, NY?' and he recommended me to play with him.' Thus Mangione filled the trumpeter's slot previously occupied by such illustrious players as Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan.
By the end of the 60s, Mangione had returned to the Eastman School as director of its jazz ensemble. He had also formed a quartet that featured the saxophonist and flautist Gerry Niewood, which enjoyed success throughout the 70s.
In 1970 he made a breakthrough as a solo artist when he organised a concert of his own compositions, that mixed jazz, classical and pop styles, accompanied by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. A recording of the event was privately released, entitled Friends and Love … A Chuck Mangione Concert. This came to the attention of Mercury Records, who signed Mangione and released the album, which earned a Grammy nomination in 1971. A single from the album, Hill Where the Lord Hides, reached No 76 on the Billboard chart.
After his album Land of Make Believe (1973) picked up a lot of airplay on alternative-rock radio stations, largely thanks to its exotically tropical-sounding title track with vocals by Esther Sattersfield, he moved from Mercury to A&M records, which would release his most successsful albums.
Outside music, Mangione made regular TV appearances. He appeared in the detective show Magnum, PI, and the children's series Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show. A fictional version of himself had a recurring role in Fox TV's animated series King of the Hill – which featured numerous high-profile guests including Brad Pitt, Tom Petty and Meryl Streep – as a promoter of Mega-Lo Mart stores, usually wearing the white and red jacket from the sleeve of his Feels So Good album. He recalled: 'My character would do things like play Taps and switch right into Feels So Good. I figured that since they were playing my music and to such a large audience, why not?' He also wrote the genial instrumental Peggy Hill for a Valentine's Day episode.
His wife, Rosie (Rosemarie, nee Accardi), died in 2015. He is survived by two daughters, Diana and Nancy, three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, a sister, Josephine, and Gap.
Chuck (Charles Frank) Mangione, musician and composer, born 29 November 1940; died 22 July 2025
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
20 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Budapest Festival Orchestra / Fischer review – palpable joy in a vivid Prom pairing of Beethoven and Bluebeard
Beethoven's jubilant Seventh Symphony and a psychodrama about serial polygamy may seem curious bedfellows, but when the band is as good as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, who cares? This was the 19th Proms appearance of the ensemble founded by Iván Fischer and the late Zoltán Kocsis in 1983, and like the finest of Hungarian reds they have matured splendidly. Chief among many virtues was the visible sense of camaraderie, that and the palpable joy they brought to the music-making, no matter how familiar the fare. These musicians must have played No 7 countless times, yet still it came up fresh as a daisy. There was the opulent string tone, bows digging deep as if the performers' lives depended on it. Brass and woodwind players seemed born soloists, yet each visibly embraced the team spirit. And then there was Fischer, a model of elegance, coaxing and cajoling while teasing out those tiny details that lent the music spontaneity and vitality. In a truly memorable performance, the seamless flow and Fischer's dynamic control of the Allegretto stood out, every instrumental line crystal clear (no mean feat given the Albert Hall's soupy acoustic). Ditto the frisky scherzo, light and airy as a good souffle. The Bartók opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle was an opportunity for the orchestra to demonstrate its impressionistic side, invoking a broad range of moods and musical imagery. Fischer paid close attention to orchestral colours, conjuring if not 50, then at least 12 shades of grey to convey the dank and gloom of Bluebeard's sunless domain along with grinding dissonances and tense, eerie pianissimos. Woodwind and xylophone painted a lurid portrait of his grisly torture chamber, flickering brass fanfares illuminated the corners of a vicious armoury, while harp and celesta brought a hypnotic sparkle to the blood-stained treasury. The radiant flower garden and the overwhelming C major vistas behind the fifth door were vividly expressed. Dorottya Láng, a glowing, gutsy Judith, and Krisztián Cser, the most implacable of Bluebeards brought a crucial native intensity to the Hungarian text. Fischer's expert hand on the tiller ensured the drama ground inescapably onwards to its chilling denouement. Listen again on BBC Sounds until 12 October. The Proms continue until 13 September


The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Who is Victoria Mboko? The surging Canadian youngster vying for first WTA title
An 18-year-old tennis prodigy storming through a WTA event, knocking out ranked players and reaching the final for the first time in their career. No, we're not talking about Emma Raducanu's run to the US Open final in 2022 but instead Victoria Mboko's eerily similar surge to the final of the Canadian Open in Montreal. Yet, where Raducanu's charge seemingly came out of the blue having come through qualifying en route to winning the title, Mboko's run feels more like the culmination of a superb season. The teenager began 2025 ranked outside the top 300 players on the women's tour but a breakthrough year saw her win 22 successive matches in January and February to clinch four ITF singles titles and by early May, her win-loss record for the season was 33–3. Her success sent her inside the top 200 in the rankings and earned her a wildcard entry into a first WTA 1000 main draw at the Miami Open where she defeated Camila Osorio in the first round. Mboko then qualified for the Italian Open and was beaten by Coco Gauff in the second round despite taking the opening set off the American. Two Grand Slam appearances followed, the first at the French Open where Mboko fought through qualifying and made it to the third round and the second at Wimbledon where she lost to Hailey Baptiste. But, the best was yet to come. Mboko was born in Charlotte, North Carolina but was raised in Toronto, Canada and is a Canadian citizen. The National Bank Open is her 'home' tournament and a straight set win over Kimberly Birrell in the opening round kick started her remarkable run. Not only that but that victory shot her to a career-best No. 85 in the world rankings and her run through the tournament in Montreal is set to propel her inside the top 50. On her way to the semi-finals she had dropped just one set, against Czech Republic's Marie Bouzkova, having seen off experienced threats such as Sofia Kenin and Gauff in a rematch of their Italian Open meeting. Mboko was the superior player this time around and swept the No.1 seed aside 6-1, 6-4 in the round of 16. Onlookers may have thought her remarkable tournament would end in the last four as she was drawn against 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina but Mboko revealed how strong her mental game is alongside an impressive physical performance on court. Rybakina stormed through the first set, winning it 6-1, and had match point in the second which Mboko managed to save. After that she dug deep to take the set before clinching a deciding set tie break in front of adoring home supporters to become the first Canadian to beat three former Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event in the Open Era. "I had everyone supporting me and pushing me through. Without you guys, I don't think I would've been able to pull this through," she said after defeating Rybakina. Mboko is just the third wildcard to reach the final at the Canadian Open in the Open Era after Monica Seles in 1995 and Simona Halep in 2015. She now faces Naomi Osaka for the chance to win a first WTA title. The four-time Grand Slam champion booked her place in a WTA final for the first time since Miami 2022 and is the first Japanese player in the Open Era to reach the final at the Canadian Open. She also has something to prove and will fight to end Mboko's fairytale run. Winning the title in Montreal would, of course, be the crowning achievement of Mboko's incredible year but it is only the start of what could be a fascinating career for the Canadian teenager. Whether she beats Osaka or not, Mboko has a bright future ahead of her.


Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Australia see another gold rush at Los Angeles 2028 after strong world championships
MELBOURNE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - After a strong showing at the world championships in Singapore, Australia's head coach is confident a golden generation of swimmers can deliver another big performance at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. While the United States edged Australia to top the Singapore standings with nine golds and 29 medals overall, Australia were cheered by the team's tally of eight golds among 20 medals. "From a performance point of view, when you look at the medal table, it was a great outcome for us," head coach Rohan Taylor told Reuters. Led by a crop of generational talents in their women's programmes, Australia has rivalled the United States' supremacy at the last two Olympics, scooping seven golds from the Paris Games pool after a team record haul of nine at Tokyo. The United States topped both Games meets, with nine golds at Paris and 11 at Tokyo. European nations are making inroads, particularly in men's events, but Australia's Olympic champions showed they have lost none of their hunger since Paris. Backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown swept the 100m and 200m golds in Singapore in a repeat of the 2023 Fukuoka world championships, while Mollie O'Callaghan grabbed a second women's 200m freestyle title and was instrumental in Australia's two freestyle relay golds. The evergreen Cameron McEvoy stormed to the men's 50m freestyle gold, becoming Australia's oldest world champion swimmer at 31. Australia invests heavily in swimming which has contributed about a third of its total Olympic medals and produced an honour roll of champions such as Ian Thorpe, Dawn Fraser and Emma McKeon. Taylor and his staff are tasked with keeping the good times rolling through to 2032 when Australia host the Olympics in Brisbane. Australia were missing big names in Singapore, including the resting four-times Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus and injured breaststroker Zac Stubblety-Cook, a former world champion. However, there were statement performances from lesser lights. The partially deaf Meg Harris claimed her first individual title in the women's 50 freestyle, having shared all her previous gold medals at global events with relay teammates. Teen talents Milla Jansen and Olivia Wunsch helped Australia win the women's 4x100m freestyle relay in the absence of Shayna Jack and the retired Emma McKeon. Lani Pallister gave American great Katie Ledecky a scare in the 800m freestyle, while beating Canada's irrepressible Summer McIntosh for the silver medal. Pallister's time of 8:05.98 shaved five seconds off her personal best and was the sixth fastest on record, marking her as a big threat to Ledecky's bid for a record-extending fifth Olympic gold in the event at LA. "Ledecky is the greatest distance female ... we've ever seen," said Taylor. "But at some point there'll be an athlete taking over and I'm sure Lani is motivated to do that." For all the podium celebrations, Australia have work to do to ensure they can challenge U.S. supremacy at LA. The U.S. team's results in Singapore were probably affected by an outbreak of gastroenteritis at their pre-meet camp in Thailand. Australia made little impression in the men's backstroke and breaststroke and consequently had modest results in the medley relay events. The women were well-beaten for the 4x100m medley relay gold by the world record-setting U.S. team, which cost silver medallists Australia their top spot on the medal table. Taylor said Australia needed to develop more depth in men's backstroke and breaststroke across the board to strengthen their relay teams. "If we keep building on that, we will always be around the mark."