Born on November 29, 1940, Mangione grew up listening to jazz and learning from figures like Dizzy Gillespie, who was a “family friend.”
An alumnus of the Eastman School of Music, where he later served as director of the Eastman Jazz Orchestra, Chuck Mangione played in a quintet called the Jazz Brothers with his brother, keyboardist Gap, and performed in the big bands of Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson.
As a solo artist, he infused his compositions with lighter, pop-inspired techniques that ultimately helped him achieve popular acceptance, despite his more specialized musical training.
His piece “Feels So Good” reached number 4 on the Hot 100 in 1978, a rare feat for a pop-jazz instrumental recording.
