(Credits: Marek Lazarski)

Thu 24 July 2025 18:02, UK

American jazz musician and composer Chuck Mangione has passed away at the age of 84.

Mangione passed away in his sleep at his home in Rochester on July 22nd, the Bartolomeo & Perreto Funeral Home confirmed. His life ended where it began, in Rochester, where he graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the Eastman School of Music.

936.3K

Pulp playing ‘Babies’ last night at Montreux Jazz Festival

He began playing music alongside his brother, pianist Gap Mangione. They began a group called Jazz Brothers. Gap was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2015, while Chuck was inducted for his flugelhorn and trumpet playing in 2012.

His impressive career spanned three decades. He earned 14 Grammy nominations and won two of them. According to the Rochester Music Hall of Fame, his album Feels So Good became one of the most successful jazz records ever produced.

Chuck was internationally recognised after he was asked to perform at the closing ceremony of the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. There, he performed the song ‘Give It All You Got’.

That same year, Chuck held a benefit concert in a Ballroom in Rochester to benefit the victims of an earthquake in Italy. The nine-hour concert included jazz performers Chick Corea, Steve Gadd and Dizzy Gillespie.

Alongside his main passion, Chuck had a recurring voice-acting role on the animated television series King of the Hill. In it, he portrays himself as a celebrity spokesman for Mega Lo Mart, adorning the white and red jacket from the cover of Feels So Good. The first episode originally aired on February 16th 1997.

He also dipped his toe into acting, making a handful of appearances in television shows. In the Magnum, P.I. episode ‘Paradise Blues’, Mangione portrays a fellow nightclub act along with the former girlfriend of TC, played by Roger E Mosley.