Chuck Mangione Big Hit At SPAC Again

by Bill Rice, The Times Record, June 18, 1973

There are some musicians who preach that no barriers should exist between differing styles of music.

Chuck Mangione proves it.

The colorful composer, conductor and flugelhorn artist, who is fast becoming a folk hero of sorts in these parts, brought his music to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saturday evening for what was one of the finest specials ever presented in the SPAC amphitheater.

It was the second SPAC special this season and attended by only between three and four thousand people, but it has long been established fact that little correlation exists between crowd size and quality of performance.

It was Mangione’s second SPAC appearance and he brought with him familiar faces from last season’s opening event: his brother, Gap Mangione, an exciting keyboard artist who, with his full-faced beard, looked for all the world like Robert Redford in the film “Mountain Man”; Esther Satterfield, a black singer whose light but penetrating voice was sheer delight all evening; Gerry Niewood, who has to be one of the finest all-around reed men in the world of jazz; and bassist Slim Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera who are regular members of the Mangione Quartet, both formeriy with Woody Herman.

Last year Mangione led a full symphonic orchestra from the Rochester area. This year the orchestra was the Hamilton Philharmonic from Ontario, along with a chorus of about 25 young singers directed by Joe Crupi.

Another outstanding soloist was Don Potter, absent from Saratoga last year, but familiar to Mangione fans through his work on the “Together” album.

Potter’s singing style, best described as similar in a way to that of Kenny Rogers of the First Edition, was just superb on “Look to the Children,” where he coupled with Esther Satterfield, and “Friends and Love” where he was the lone vocal soloist.

Another outstanding soloist was cellist Cathy Lehr, who was heard on “El Gato Triste.”

Trying to put Mangione’s musical style into one bag could be very frustrating. While outstanding jazz solos abound, provided mainly by himself on flugelhorn, Niewood on reeds and brother sounds that are folkish, latin and classic intermingle easily throughout his compositions.

He thinks nothing of switching quickly from a country hoe-down in the string section to a brash dixieland strut in the horns.

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