Latest news with #DizzyGillespie
The Guardian
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Chuck Mangione obituary
While the arrival of rock'n'roll in the 1950s helped deflate the popularity that jazz music had once enjoyed, there would be artists who found a way to bring it back into the mainstream. One of them was Chuck Mangione, who has died aged 84. 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
The Verge
04-08-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Thanks for sharing.
Lawyer and venture capitalist Hank Barry, Napster's former CEO, recalled famed music executive Quincy Jones asking him whether a particular Dizzy Gillespie track he had sought for years was available over Napster. Amazed that it was, Jones brokered peace talks with the industry, though they didn't work out.
Business Journals
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Journals
D.C. jazz institution Blues Alley celebrates 60 years in Georgetown
Blues Alley, the Georgetown jazz club whose stage has been graced by Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck and countless other jazz luminaries, is turning 60. That milestone belies another: that Blues Alley is the oldest continuously operating jazz supper club in the U.S., according to owner Harry Schnipper. The venue located in a carriage house in an alley behind Wisconsin Avenue NW was opened in 1965 by founder Tommy Gwaltney. Over the years, it adapted to the changing times and appetites for different types of jazz. Schipper has been its owner since 1997. He has organized a blockbuster lineup for the anniversary with the theme 'The House that Dizzy Built.' Blues Alley will build on its annual Brazilian Jazz Series this year with several other Latin embassy jazz series for Hispanic Heritage Month, including Chilean, Peruvian, and Cuban jazz artists playing in September and October. Starting with the week of the July 21 anniversary itself, the venue will begin a series called Decades of Divas featuring several vocalists singing in different styles of the different decades of the venue's tenure. Performances include two nights of shows from jazz icon Melba Moore on July 24-25, and two nights of Jane Monheit on July 26-27. Kicking it off on July 21 will be Clara Campbell, the winner of the international Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocalist Competition, which Blues Alley sponsors. Tickets to all shows are available on Blues Alley's website. Schnipper founded the competition in 2016 to continue to raise Blues Alley's profile, and in part to increase interest in jazz music among the next generation of musicians. The competition now receives hundreds of entrants annually from around the world. Campbell is from the U.S., but this year's second place winner from India and fourth place was from Belarus. 'Ella Fitzgerald's name continues to resonate for future generations, and this competition allows me to identify the future generations of emerging vocalists who will go on to achieve prominence,' Schnipper said. The competition is just one part of the venue's nonprofit efforts. The Blues Alley Jazz Society, which organizes the Blues Alley Youth Orchestra, summer jazz camps, and other events for young people, turns 30 next year, and has been a huge part of the ongoing sustainability of Blues Alley says Schnipper. Gillespie himself helped with the youth orchestra in the '90s, after famously declaring Blues Alley a quintessential jazz club in the 1970s. expandPhoto courtesy Blues Alley expand 'Dizzy Gillespie was the first one to assist us in founding our youth orchestra back in the 1990s, and he was instrumental in educating me that if we don't invest in the future of jazz music, there will be no listeners and there will be no performers,' Schnipper said. 'So it's a self perpetuating prophecy in which we've created organic sustainability.' That sustainability is also aided by a number of ways Blues Alley has adapted its business model, especially since Schnipper took over shortly before 9/11, which had a huge impact on Washington's economy. The venue has managed to survive even as most of the city's other jazz clubs have closed; it helps that they own their building, something that goes a long way to ensuring longevity of any hospitality business. But Schnipper has also grown Blues Alley's profile through broadcasting performances on Voice of America during the pandemic, which up until recently broadcast jazz performances from a studio in the National Press Building to dozens of countries around the globe. President Donald Trump's administration defunded and attempted to shut down the state-sponsored global media channels earlier this year, though a judge halted the shutdown, giving VOA a reprieve. But the broadcasts to 37 countries that began during the pandemic significantly raised Blues Alley's profile; Blues Alley's website now sees 300,000 visits a month, many of them from overseas, Schnipper said. 'We expanded our brand and our footprint by streaming worldwide,' Schnipper said. 'It was a significant accomplishment that brought us a much bigger, more loyal customer base.' The business has continued to pivot in the past six months as the Trump administration's actions laying off government employees have created economic uncertainty in Washington. While Blues Alley traditionally booked one act from Thursday-Sunday, now it often splits weekends to capitalize on different artists' fan bases. The venue also lowered ticket prices to ensure it is still within its liquor license threshold of earning 51% of its revenue from food and beverage, Schnipper said. The lower ticket pricing has allowed Blues Alley to bring in more new musicians, however. 'Emerging Musician Mondays' are now a standing weekly event that provide a platform for young musicians getting started in the industry — some of whom may have played in the Blues Alley Youth Orchestra, or attended a summer camp. 'It's very gratifying,' said Schnipper. Still, even as it makes space for emerging talent, Blues Alley remains a must-stop for the biggest names in jazz and other touring musicians when they come through D.C. And many of them will be doing so over the next few months to wish the club a happy birthday, including David Benoit, Mike Stern, Monty Alexander's annual Christmas to New Year's residency, and others. (Find tickets on Blues Alley's website.) It's that talent that contributes to Blues Alley's longevity. 'I like to colloquially say it's like backing the right horses. We've been very successful in finding the talent that's going to sustain itself over the course of many decades,' Schnipper said. 'The quality of the talent that we present nightly, the names are the marquee names of the jazz industry.'
Daily Mail
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Legendary Mission: Impossible composer Lalo Schifrin dies aged 93
The legendary composer who wrote the Mission: Impossible theme song has passed away at the age of 93. Lalo Schifrin died inside his Los Angeles home on Thursday from complications with pneumonia, his son, Ryan, confirmed. He was surrounded by his loved ones. Schifrin was a jazz pianist and classical conductor and had a remarkable career in music that included working with Dizzy Gillespie and recording with Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. His biggest contribution was the instantly recognizable score to television's Mission: Impossible, which fueled the just-wrapped, decades-spanning feature film franchise led by Tom Cruise. Schifrin originally wrote a different piece of music for the theme song but series creator Bruce Geller liked another arrangement Schifrin had composed for an action sequence. 'The producer called me and told me: 'You're going to have to write something exciting, almost like a logo, something that will be a signature, and it's going to start with a fuse,'' Schifrin told the AP in 2006. 'So I did it and there was nothing on the screen. And maybe the fact that I was so free and I had no images to catch, maybe that's why this thing has become so successful - because I wrote something that came from inside me.' When director Brian De Palma was asked to take the series to the silver screen, he wanted to bring the theme along with him, leading to a creative conflict with composer John Williams, who wanted to work with a new theme of his own. Out went Williams and in came Danny Elfman, who agreed to retain Schifrin's music. Hans Zimmer took over scoring for the second film, and Michael Giacchino scored the next two. Giacchino told NPR he was hesitant to take it on, because Schifrin's music was one of his favorite themes of all time. 'I remember calling Lalo and asking if we could meet for lunch,' Giacchino told NPR. 'And I was very nervous - I felt like someone asking a father if I could marry their daughter or something. And he said, 'Just have fun with it.' And I did.' Mission: Impossible won Grammys for best instrumental theme and best original score from a motion picture or a TV show. In 2017, the theme was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Schifrin has composed more than 100 arrangements for film and TV. The Argentine won four Grammys and was nominated for six Oscars, including five for original score for Cool Hand Luke, The Fox, Voyage of the Damned, The Amityville Horror and The Sting II. 'Every movie has its own personality. There are no rules to write music for movies,' Schifrin told The Associated Press in 2018. 'The movie dictates what the music will be.' He also wrote the grand finale musical performance for the World Cup championship in Italy in 1990, in which the Three Tenors - Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras - sang together for the first time. The work became one of the biggest sellers in the history of classical music. Schifrin was born Boris Claudio Schifrin to a Jewish family in Buenos Aires, where his father was the concertmaster of the philharmonic orchestra. Schifrin was classically trained in music, in addition to studying law. After studying at the Paris Conservatory, where he learned about harmony and composition from the legendary Olivier Messiaen, Schifrin returned to Argentina and formed a concert band. Gillespie heard Schifrin perform and asked him to become his pianist, arranger and composer. In 1958, Schifrin moved to the United States, playing in Gillespie's quintet in 1960-62 and composing the acclaimed Gillespiana. The long list of luminaries he performed and recorded with includes Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Dee Dee Bridgewater and George Benson. He also worked with such classical stars as Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim and others. Schifrin moved easily between genres, winning a Grammy for 1965's Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts while also earning a nod that same year for the score of TV's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. In 2018, he was given an honorary Oscar statuette and, in 2017, the Latin Recording Academy bestowed on him one of its special trustee awards. Later film scores included Tango, Rush Hour and its two sequels, Bringing Down The House, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, After the Sunset, and the horror film Abominable. Writing the arrangements for Dirty Harry, Schifrin decided that the main character wasn't in fact Clint Eastwood's hero, Harry Callahan, but the villain, Scorpio. 'You would think the composer would pay more attention to the hero. But in this case, no, I did it to Scorpio, the bad guy, the evil guy,' he told the AP. 'I wrote a theme for Scorpio.' It was Eastwood who handed him his honorary Oscar. 'Receiving this honorary Oscar is the culmination of a dream,' Schifrin said at the time. 'It is mission accomplished.' Among Schifrin's conducting credits include the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Mexico Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed music director of Southern California's Glendale Symphony Orchestra and served in that capacity from 1989-1995. Schifrin also wrote and adapted the music for Christmas in Vienna in 1992, a concert featuring Diana Ross, Carreras and Domingo. He also combined tango, folk and classical genres when he recorded Letters from Argentina, nominated for a Latin Grammy for best tango album in 2006. Schifrin was also commissioned to write the overture for the 1987 Pan American Games, and composed and conducted the event's 1995 final performance in Argentina. And for perhaps one of the only operas performed in the ancient Indigenous language of Nahuatl, in 1988 Schifrin wrote and conducted the choral symphony 'Songs of the Aztecs.' The work premiered at Mexico's Teotihuacan pyramids with Domingo as part of a campaign to raise money to restore the site's Aztec temple. 'I found it to be a very sweet musical language, one in which the sounds of the words dictated interesting melodies,' Schifrin told The Associated Press at the time. 'But the real answer is that there's something magic about it. 'There's something magic in the art of music anyway.' He's survived by his sons, Ryan and William, daughter, Frances, and wife, Donna.
Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Legendary Mission: Impossible composer dies aged 93
The legendary composer, who wrote the Mission: Impossible score, has passed away at the age of 93. Lalo Schifrin died inside his Los Angeles home on Thursday from complications with pneumonia, his son, Ryan, confirmed. He was surrounded by his loved ones. Schifrin was a jazz pianist and classical conductor and had a remarkable career in music that included working with Dizzy Gillespie and recording with Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. His biggest contribution was the instantly recognizable score to television's Mission: Impossible, which fueled the just-wrapped, decades-spanning feature film franchise led by Tom Cruise. Schifrin originally wrote a different piece of music for the theme song but series creator Bruce Geller liked another arrangement Schifrin had composed for an action sequence. 'The producer called me and told me: 'You're going to have to write something exciting, almost like a logo, something that will be a signature, and it's going to start with a fuse,'' Schifrin told the AP in 2006. 'So I did it and there was nothing on the screen. And maybe the fact that I was so free and I had no images to catch, maybe that's why this thing has become so successful - because I wrote something that came from inside me.' When director Brian De Palma was asked to take the series to the silver screen, he wanted to bring the theme along with him, leading to a creative conflict with composer John Williams, who wanted to work with a new theme of his own. Out went Williams and in came Danny Elfman, who agreed to retain Schifrin's music. Hans Zimmer took over scoring for the second film, and Michael Giacchino scored the next two. Giacchino told NPR he was hesitant to take it on, because Schifrin's music was one of his favorite themes of all time. 'I remember calling Lalo and asking if we could meet for lunch,' Giacchino told NPR. 'And I was very nervous - I felt like someone asking a father if I could marry their daughter or something. And he said, 'Just have fun with it.' And I did.' Mission: Impossible won Grammys for best instrumental theme and best original score from a motion picture or a TV show. In 2017, the theme was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Schifrin has composed more than 100 arrangements for film and TV. The Argentine won four Grammys and was nominated for six Oscars, including five for original score for Cool Hand Luke, The Fox, Voyage of the Damned, The Amityville Horror and The Sting II. 'Every movie has its own personality. There are no rules to write music for movies,' Schifrin told The Associated Press in 2018. 'The movie dictates what the music will be.' He also wrote the grand finale musical performance for the World Cup championship in Italy in 1990, in which the Three Tenors - Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras - sang together for the first time. The work became one of the biggest sellers in the history of classical music. Schifrin was born Boris Claudio Schifrin to a Jewish family in Buenos Aires - where his father was the concertmaster of the philharmonic orchestra - Schifrin was classically trained in music, in addition to studying law. After studying at the Paris Conservatory - where he learned about harmony and composition from the legendary Olivier Messiaen - Schifrin returned to Argentina and formed a concert band. Gillespie heard Schifrin perform and asked him to become his pianist, arranger and composer. In 1958, Schifrin moved to the United States, playing in Gillespie's quintet in 1960-62 and composing the acclaimed Gillespiana. The long list of luminaries he performed and recorded with includes Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Dee Dee Bridgewater and George Benson. He also worked with such classical stars as Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim and others. Schifrin moved easily between genres, winning a Grammy for 1965's Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts while also earning a nod that same year for the score of TV's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. In 2018, he was given an honorary Oscar statuette and, in 2017, the Latin Recording Academy bestowed on him one of its special trustee awards. Later film scores included Tango, Rush Hour and its two sequels, Bringing Down The House, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, After the Sunset, and the horror film Abominable. Writing the arrangements for Dirty Harry, Schifrin decided that the main character wasn't in fact Clint Eastwood's hero, Harry Callahan, but the villain, Scorpio. 'You would think the composer would pay more attention to the hero. But in this case, no, I did it to Scorpio, the bad guy, the evil guy,' he told the AP. 'I wrote a theme for Scorpio.' It was Eastwood who handed him his honorary Oscar. 'Receiving this honorary Oscar is the culmination of a dream,' Schifrin said at the time. 'It is mission accomplished.' Among Schifrin's conducting credits include the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Mexico Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed music director of Southern California's Glendale Symphony Orchestra and served in that capacity from 1989-1995. Schifrin also wrote and adapted the music for Christmas in Vienna in 1992, a concert featuring Diana Ross, Carreras and Domingo. He also combined tango, folk and classical genres when he recorded Letters from Argentina, nominated for a Latin Grammy for best tango album in 2006. Schifrin was also commissioned to write the overture for the 1987 Pan American Games, and composed and conducted the event's 1995 final performance in Argentina. And for perhaps one of the only operas performed in the ancient Indigenous language of Nahuatl, in 1988 Schifrin wrote and conducted the choral symphony 'Songs of the Aztecs.' The work premiered at Mexico's Teotihuacan pyramids with Domingo as part of a campaign to raise money to restore the site's Aztec temple. 'I found it to be a very sweet musical language, one in which the sounds of the words dictated interesting melodies,' Schifrin told The Associated Press at the time. 'But the real answer is that there's something magic about it. ... There's something magic in the art of music anyway.' He's survived by his sons, Ryan and William, daughter, Frances, and wife, Donna.
