Chuck Mangione, Grammy-winning jazz musician, dead at 84

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — Chuck Mangione, noted flugelhorn player, trumpeter and composer, has died. He was reportedly 84.

The news was confirmed via a press release out of a funeral home in Rochester, New York, on behalf of Mangione’s family, who said they were “deeply saddened to share that Chuck peacefully passed away in his sleep at his home in Rochester” on Tuesday.

Mangione, a flugelhorn player whose composition “Feels So Good” became an unlikely pop hit in 1978, was a Rochester native who started playing jazz as a teenager.

He won two Grammy Awards over his 60-year career in music, including one for best instrumental composition for “Bellavia” – named to honor his mother – and was nominated a total of 14 times.

“Feels So Good,” an upbeat instrumental whose full-length version runs nearly 10 minutes, spent 25 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #4 in 1978.

In addition to that signature hit, Mangione was recognizable for his distinctive style at the peak of his career, sporting long hair and a brown felt hat with a feathered band that he later donated to the Smithsonian Institution.

He composed and performed “Give it All You Got,” which was the theme song for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

Outside of the music business, Mangione is remembered for his recurring appearances as a tongue-in-cheek version of himself on the primetime Fox animated series “King of the Hill.”

The release shared this week characterized Mangione as a musician with “boundless energy, unabashed enthusiasm, and pure joy that radiated from the stage,” saying his appreciation for his admirers was demonstrated “by how often he would sit at the edge of the stage after a concert for however long it took to sign autographs for the fans who stayed to meet him and the band.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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