April 14, 1977 review: Chuck Mangione at Kleinhans Music Hall

 


Underneath it all, Chuck Mangione was still a guy from the neighborhood.

April 14, 1977

Mangione Orchestra,

Quartet at Home Here 

          It’s all in the family Wednesday night in sold-out Kleinhans Music Hall for Chuck Mangione.

          Brother Gap, his Fender Rhodes piano and his synthesizer sit smack in the center of Chuck’s 16-member wind orchestra.

          Out in the lobby is Chuck’s father, the words Papa Mangione embroidered on his Chuck Mangione T-shirt. The shirts are $4. The albums are $5. And Chuck will sign them for you after the show.

          Which means that many spiffily-dressed couples inundate Chuck for autographs when the lights finally come up. Chuck doesn’t mind. Buffalo gave him his break.

          “Unless it happens somewhere else,” he says at the start of his encore, “then it doesn’t happen at home.”

          What Chuck is doing is taking home with him. Brother Gap says they’re touring a little more than a week with the orchestra and Chuck’s quartet, all by bus.

* * *

MAYBE THAT’S why Chuck comes out with his flugelhorn in a leather overnight bag. He’s a familiar figure – long hair streaming from under a hat. There’s a new dazzle in his choice of a short silver jacket and black satin pants.

          There’s a different kind of sparkle in this quartet, too. It’s a new foursome, mostly Los Angeles musicians, and they put slickness and punch into Chuck’s familiar Mediterranean tone.

          Chris Vadala’s sax and flute are ready counterparts for Chuck’s horn and piano and solos are most often passed to him. He shines especially in the quiet, quavery flute sections of “Soft.”

          Guitarist Grant Geisman is fast. His flat pick moves at mandolin speed. It’s his 24th birthday, Chuck announces, and leads the band in a chorus of “Happy Birthday to You.”

* * *

THE TWO SETS include a few old favorites like “Hill Where the Lord Hide,” which makes a rousing first-half closer, and selections from his two newest albums – “Bellavia” and “Main Squeeze,” which provide two tunes for the encore.

          Lost in the sound mix is brother Gap’s piano. He rings through only when he’s featured in “Sunshower.” The 16 horn players stumble at the start before they maneuver smoothly.

          The orchestra gives his music a brassy grandeur and indulges the band director in Chuck. He counts down to them just as if they were his former jazz band students at Eastman School of Music in Rochester. No doubt some of them are.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Chuck Mangione in an A&M Records publicity photo.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Chuck Mangione’s rising star got an extra kick after he made his move to A&M Records in 1975. His “Chase the Clouds Away” was a background theme for the telecast of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and he won his first Grammy with the “Bellavia” album in 1977. Later that year, he released “Feels So Good,” which made him an international star.

          At this point, his old quartet with longtime sidekick Gerry Niewood had just given way to this new lineup featuring young jazz guitar whiz Grant Geissman, bassist Charles Meeks, drummer James Bradley Jr. and Chris Vadala, a highly-revered saxophonist and Eastman School guy who stayed with Mangione for many years.

          There’s no setlist from any date on this spring tour on setlist.fm, but the group was captured live for the King Biscuit Flower Hour at the Bottom Line in New York City on Nov. 2, 1977, right after the “Feels So Good” album came out. Here’s what they played that night:

 

Hill Where the Lord Hides

Chase the Clouds Away

The Day After (Our First Night Together)

Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor

Soft

Feels So Good

Hide and Seek (Ready of Not, Here I Come)

Bellavia

The XIth Commandment

Land of Make Believe

Main Squeeze

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