Steve Gadd

Charles “Chuck” Mangione was born on November 29, 1940. As a child, Mangione’s father encouraged him and his brother, Gap, to love jazz music, introducing them to jazz records and taking them to Sunday matinees at Rochester’s jazz clubs. The brothers were known to regularly play the Pythodd Club on Clarissa Street, a gigging career that led to the formation of The Mangione Brothers Sextet, which recorded three albums for Riverside Records. Mangione graduated from Eastman in 1963 with a bachelor’s in music education, then promptly joined the famous group, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He later returned to teach Eastman’s Jazz Ensemble in 1968.

As a flugelhorn player, Chuck Mangione’s album “Feels So Good” was one of the most popular jazz records of his time, securing Mangione a performance spot at the opening ceremonies of the 1980 winter Olympic games. Mangione also has multiple acting credits, the most notable being his recurring voice acting role on the animated show, King of the Hill. Over the course of his career, Chuck Mangione rose to certain stardom in the jazz world, releasing over thirty albums, winning two Grammy awards, and earning a title in the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2012.