FEELING'S BACK

Released in 1999 by the noted audiophile label Chesky Records, The Feeling's Back showed that flugelhorn maestro Chuck Mangione - renowned for his trademark fedora hat and warm melodic lyricism - was still a force to be reckoned with in the jazz world. The son of an Italian American greengrocer, Rochester-born Mangione played hardbop in a group with his piano-playing brother before going solo in the mid-1960s. In 1978, he joined a small list of chart-busting elite jazz instrumentalists when his track 'Feels So Good' rose to No. 1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. Considered a founding father of smooth jazz, Mangione began his own record label in the late '80s before landing at Chesky in 1999 for The Feeling's Back, the first of two albums for the company. Framing his mellow flugelhorn sound with lush, intimate arrangements and female vocals, TheFeeling's Back showed that the flugelhornist hadn't lost his mojo. At 58, he could still play with the sensitive touch and quiet fire that had defined his earlier, commercially successful work. The album is reissued on SACD Hybrid Stereo in 2025