Chuck Mangione

During the 1970s Chuck Mangione rose to widespread fame on the strength of his deliberately lightweight sound, an upbeat and optimistic strain of melodic pop that occasionally turned uplifting. Although his albums sold in large numbers, most listeners of the period never realized that bebop had been his original ambition. His father regularly brought Chuck and his older brother Gap, a keyboardist, to jazz shows, and Dizzy Gillespie counted as a family friend. While Chuck attended the Eastman School the Mangione brothers co-led the bop quintet Jazz Brothers, which recorded several Jazzland albums often featuring tenor saxophonist Sal Nistico. In 1965 Mangione worked with the big bands of Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson, then spent 1965–1967 in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

From 1968 onward he concentrated on flügelhorn and formed a quartet that featured Gerry Niewood on tenor and soprano saxophones. The group produced a strong Mercury date in 1972, yet most of Mangione's 1970s output relied on large orchestras and vocalists such as Esther Satterfield, spotlighting airy melodies like "Hill Where the Lord Hides," "Land of Make Believe," "Chase the Clouds Away," and the major 1977 hit "Feels So Good" with guitarist Grant Geissman. A 1978 Hollywood Bowl concert recording summarized his pop phase, while a 1980 two-LP set mixed pop and bop and included Dizzy Gillespie as guest; afterward Mangione gradually withdrew from the scene. He had recorded for Mercury and A&M in the 1970s, issued a pair of largely unmemorable Columbia albums in the 1980s, and stayed silent through the 1990s until a 1997 comeback tour reunited him with the "Feels So Good" band and found him playing well. The Feeling's Back appeared in 1999.