Two-time Grammy Award winner Chuck Mangione dies aged 84
Chuck's biggest hit was his 1977 single "Feels So Good," which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammys
Two-time Grammy Award winner Chuck Mangione has passed away at the age of 84.
The jazz flugelhorn player died at his home in Rochester, New York.
Reports indicate that the prolific musician and composer, whose career spanned five decades and 30 albums, died while sleeping earlier this week.
His family has eulogised him as a character filled with boundless energy and unabashed enthusiasm.
“Chuck’s love affair with music has been characterized by his boundless energy, unabashed enthusiasm, and pure joy that radiated from the stage,” Chuck’s family said in a statement to a US-based Newspaper.
According to the family, the late artist showed his appreciation for his audiences by sitting at the edge of the stage after his concerts, signing autographs for fans who stayed to meet him and the band.
Born in 1940 as Charles Frank Mangione in Rochester, New York, Chuck, as known by many people worldwide, was a virtuoso flugelhorn and trumpet player.
He grew up in a household where his father exposed him to the jazz greats of the 1950s, including Dizzy Gillespie, a family friend who dined with them frequently.
He began taking music lessons at age 8, and by the time he was a teenager, Gillespie was so impressed by his musical prowess that he gave Mangione one of his trademark “upswept” trumpets.
His composition “Chase the Clouds Away” was featured at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, while his “Give It All You Got” was the theme music for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.
Chuck’s biggest hit was his 1977 single “Feels So Good,” which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammys.
His album by the same name is a staple on smooth jazz radio stations.
He won two Grammys out of 14 nominations, the first being in 1977 for best instrumental composition for “Bellavia,” named in honor of his mother.
He won the second in 1979, in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category for “The Children of Sanchez.” The latter, a soundtrack for the movie of the same name, also won a Golden Globe.
