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FILE – Jazz musician Chuck Mangione has come a long way from the $5 jobs at Italian weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and amateur hours. Today, Mangione has built up such a following that not even a torrential downpour in Central Park could keep jazz enthusiast
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Two-time Grammy Award-winning musician Chuck Mangione, who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-flavored single “Feels So Good” and later became a voice actor on the animated TV comedy “King of the Hill,” has died. He was 84.
Chuck Mangione dies at his home
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The news was confirmed Thursday on Mangione’s personal website, which read, “We are very sorry. Chuck Mangione has passed. More to come.” His attorney, Peter S. Matorin of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP also confirmed that Mangione died at his home in Rochester, New York, on July 22 in his sleep.
TMZ first broke the news of the musician’s death. The media outlet was also told Mangione died from natural causes.
Chuck Mangione’s legendary career
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Born and raised in Rochester, NY, Chuck was inducted in 2012 into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame.
Over his career, Mangione won two Grammy Awards – the first in 1977 for best instrumental composition and the second in 1979 for best pop instrumental performance.
His composition “Chase The Clouds Away” was featured at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, and his composition “Give It All You Got” was heard around the world as the theme music for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, which he performed live at the closing ceremonies.
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Mangione’s biggest hit was his 1978 single “Feels So Good,” and the album by the same name is regarded as one of the most successful jazz records of all time.
“It identified for a lot of people a song with an artist, even though I had a pretty strong base audience that kept us out there touring as often as we wanted to, that song just topped out there and took it to a whole other level,” Mangione told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008.
He also had a notable recurring role on the animated sitcom “King of the Hill” where he played himself as a Mega Lo Mart celebrity spokesperson. He also scored the music for the 1998 Valentine’s Day episode.
Mangione earned a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music — where he would eventually return as director of the school’s jazz ensemble — and left home to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.
He donated his signature brown felt hat and the score of his Grammy-winning single “Feels So Good,” as well as albums, songbooks and other ephemera from his long and illustrious career to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in 2009.
The Source: This story was reported from Los Angeles. TMZ, The Associated Press contributed.