Published on Feb 22, 1999
Has it been just over 20 years since Chuck Mangione’s
Feels So Good first graced the musical airwaves? Long before
what is now known as “New Age Jazz” or “Smooth Jazz”, many jazz
artists like Mangione, Pat Metheny and David Sanborn were featuring
jazz in a much different style as the contempary jazz artists, like
Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and even different than big-band
jazz.
When Chuck Mangione’s song “Feels So Good” hit the airwaves, it
was the biggest song of its time. His instrumental tunes were
featured in the Olympics, and many radio stations (including the
radio studio at my high school) were using his tunes as background
music for various commericals and advertisements.
In listening to his 1977 album
Feels So Good, I can’t help but to listen to more of this
kind of music. While listening to the local Smooth Jazz Chicago
radio station (WNUA-FM 95.5), what makes this album (and this type
of music) is how they blend certain musical instruments. Two
instruments in particular, one featured on Mangione’s album, is the
guitar (even though Mangione is famous as a trumpeter). The other
is keyboards and/or synthesizers.
While most people are familiar with Mangione’s title track tune,
its total length is clocked in close to 10 minutes long, and quite
frankly, it is very different than the standard short version we
are all familiar with. It starts out very slow, and then kicks in
with the beginning of what is known as the short version’s
instrumental guitar licks. There are also different solos (both on
horn and guitar) throughout. One thing in discovering long versions
of well-known songs is that you are just so used to the short
versions, it catches you off guard everytime. (Remember hearing the
long version of The Doors’ “Light My Fire” for the first time?)
As much as Mangione’s featured trumpet (actually it’s the
fluegelhorn) is heard on this album (and throughout his career),
his instrumentation with the guitar is simply phenoemenal. Even the
song “Maui-Waui” received some radio airplay, as I remembered
hearing it for this review (or did I hear it as one of those
commercial backgrounds way back when?). In either case, this song
too, is just as great as the title track.
“Theme From Side Street” blends horns with guitar. They relate
to the Spanish Horns than any particular kind. “Hide and Seek
(Ready Or Not Here I Come)” is very jazzy and upbeat.
“Last Dance” defines the true meaning of Smooth Jazz: It’s very
romantic in sound, and is very relaxing. Somehow romantic tunes
like these can only be focused on the horn as the main key
instrument. Even the brisk guitar touches are simply
magnificent.
“The XIth Commandment” (that’s the number 11 for those who don’t
know) is very Olympic sounding. Yet it is moody, it changes tempo
towards the end, and is a song that sets the pace for the Olympic
Games (which a lot of his music was featured, in later years).
The title says it all:
Feels So Good is how “you” will feel after listening to this
album. Mostly all of the songs are quite long (the average is over
eight minutes, the shortest just over two), but somehow I still
want to hear more. And it also makes me want to explore other
smooth jazz artists and their styles. What I didn’t know was that
this kind of jazz was around since the late 1970s. This type of
music became more popular towards the end of the 1980s. Jazz wasn’t
as popular as rock and/or pop music, until it became recognized,
also in the late Eighties. This music is very well accepted today,
from its jazzy upbeat tunes like “Hide and Seek”, to the smooth
arrangements in songs like “Feels So Good” and “Last Dance”, jazz
has created another Chapter in the book of popular music, right
next to Rock ‘n’ Roll, Country, Pop, Alertnative, and far more
categories of music. And that Chapter is “Smooth Jazz”.
Somewhere, on one of those many “Smooth Jazz” radio stations,
Chuck Mangione’s music is playing. We haven’t heard much of him in
the main spotlight of popular music recently, because obviously,
today’s popular music is now being dominated by hip-hop, rap and
alternative. But somewhere in the jazz section, many people are
discovering or re-discovering Mangione’s music.
Feels So Good put him on the map as a promising jazz artist,
and opened the doors, like his fellow counterparts, to explore the
music of jazz into it’s next featured category: New Age Jazz.
Explore for yourself — It’s great to listen to, it’s relaxing and
romantic. New Age / Smooth Jazz is in, and will be here for a long
time.