Chuck Mangione, the jazz flugelhorn and trumpeter icon known for the hit song “Feels So Good,” passed away in his sleep on Tuesday at the age of 84.
Born Charles Frank Mangione on November 29, 1940, he was raised in Rochester, New York where his Italian-American parents operated a family-run grocery store, Mangione Grocers. They were also jazz enthusiasts who owned an extensive record collection which had a profound influence on Mangione’s love for jazz.
Mangione started music lessons at an early age, first with piano before transitioning to the trumpet after watching the 1950 musical Young Man with A Horn, based on the life of jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. His older brother, Gap Mangione, also became a prolific jazz pianist who he often collaborated with. While in high school, they founded The Jazz Brothers band which later morphed into Mangione Brothers Sextet/Quintet. While attending the Eastman School of Music, Mangione learned how to play the flugelhorn and later joined Art Blakely’s Jazz Messengers.
However, Mangione found mainstream success in 1977 with his album Feels So Good due to the lead single of the same name. It took the number two spot on the Billboard Album charts which catapulted Mangione as one of the originators of the pop-jazz, smooth jazz movement. He would go on to win two GRAMMY awards for best instrumental composition for “Bellavia” in 1977 and best pop instrumental performance for “Children of Sanchez” in 1979.