Chuck Mangione Plays for 10,962

by Don A. Metivier, The Post-Star, August 23, 1978

Every time Chuck Mangione returns to Saratoga Performing Arts Center, he has grown more musically.

Charles Francis Mangione, the 38-year-old from Rochester, has seen his career expand tremendously since he conducted a program of the Rochester Philharmonic in May, 1970, which grew into a television show, then an album, and made him a nationally known and respected musician.

His appearance at the Saratoga Festival Tuesday evening drew a fine crowd of 10,962 and showed he is reaching new heights as a player, composer and conductor.

His new quartet, which features the multi-talented Chris Vadala of Poughkeepsie on saxophones and flutes, and Californians Grant Geissman on guitars, Charles Meeks on bass and James Bradley Jr. on drums, is the best musical group he has put together to date.

Mangione, of course, plays flugelhorn, which he has turned into a jazz instrument. A Mangione-directed orchestra of talented young musicians accompanies the group.

He opened the concert with his first major pop hit, “Feels So Good,” the title song from his latest album, and the big crowd roared its approval. He followed that with several cuts from the album, such as his new “Eleventh Commandment,” and older Mangione favorites, including the one that got it all started, “Hill Where the Lord Hides.”

Each piece featured not just Mangione but the other members of the quartet, with Meeks doing some outstanding bass work on “Hide and Seek.”

The second half of the program was taken up with Mangione’s latest effort. the full-length movie score for the to-be-released “Children of Sanchez.” It shows still another side of this multi-talented musician-composer.

Mangione has grown fast and is now a major pop star as well as a major jazz musician, and it is obvious that he has a lot more to do on the American musical scene.

The tonal quality of his music, the frenzy he can put into a song without losing control, the lyrical qualities that keep the piece loyal to its theme are all new directions for popular music in this country.

Mangione has become a leader, and he’s going in the right direction.

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