Tag: Chuck Mangione

Title: Chuck Mangione – The Feeling’s Back (1999) [Reissue 2004]
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Charles Frank “Chuck” Mangione is an American flugelhorn player and composer who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single, “Feels So Good”. Mangione has released more than thirty albums since 1960… Chuck Mangione laid low throughout much of the ’90s, perhaps the end result of a disappointing string of albums for Columbia during the ’80s. He returned to the road in 1997 and evidently it was a positive experience, since he returned to the studio the following year to cut The Feeling’s Back. For all intents and purposes, The Feeling’s Back is a comeback album, finding Mangione returning to the smooth, melodic style of Feels So Good, but laying off the sappy pop tendencies that dogged his ’80s efforts. Although the end result is a little monotonous — many of the tracks are quiet and slowly swinging, blending together into one long track — it’s charmingly laid-back, mellow and melodic, all of the things that brought Mangione fame and fortune in the ’70s. There isn’t a whole lot in the way of “real” jazz here — the solos are extensions of the themes, and they never stand apart from the lite groove — but this has the “feeling” that Mangione fans have been waiting to feel again. And that’s enough to make it a successful comeback.

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Title: Chuck Mangione – Everything For Love (2000) [Reissue 2001]
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Charles Frank “Chuck” Mangione is an American flugelhorn player and composer who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single, “Feels So Good”. Mangione has released more than thirty albums since 1960…

Chuck Mangione, the famed flugelhornist and trumpeter fills his first recording of the 21st century with some wonderfully subdued love songs whose subtle, intimate qualities may surprise those of his fans who best know his boisterous pop hits. More than simply expressing a romantic boy-girl kind of love, Mangione is playing gentle, atmospheric jazz for a wide variety of special people, real and animated. And there is no doubt that the truest love here is that between the artist and some of his old bandmates; saxman Gerry Niewood played with Mangione from 1968 through the mid-’70s, while guitarist Grant Geissman (showing a rich, traditional jazz depth only hinted at on most of his smooth jazz efforts) and bassist Charles Meeks were there during Mangione’s late ’70s pop heyday. “Slo Ro,” dedicated to Mangione’s wife, is a moody reflection piece led by a drifting muted trumpet and the bluesy duality of Niewood’s smoky tenor and Allen’s keys. A seven-minute meditative version of “Amazing Grace” begins as a quiet, prayer-like duet between Mangione and Geissman, who switches partway through from the Wes sound to an electric rock axe for an edgy solo; then, Allen’s organ solo takes this very spiritual rendition to church before Niewood chimes in with a sweet flute solo. Within each song, there are moments when Pellegrini’s drums kick the softness up a few notches, and the peppery horn playing on “Fox Hunt” and the clapping percussion on the Latin-spiced “I Do Everything for Love” show a more playful side than Mangione displays elsewhere. Fans who know Mangione’s whole career will see this as a fine addition to his jazz catalog; those who want more pop hits will be surprised at the low-key nature of the project.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

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