Chuck Mangione - An Evening of Magic: Live at The Hollywood Bowl (1979)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a 2 LP set, later replaced by this CD set.

Recorded in Los Angeles, July 16, 1978.

At the peak of his popularity, Mangione (and A&M Records) wanted to cash in with a live album. You can't blame them - how often can a jazz instrumentalist turn a such a profit? His surprise single, Feels So Good, peaked at #4 on the pop charts just a month before this album was recorded. 4 of the 15 tracks come from the Feels So Good album - the astute Mangione was savvy enough to both open and close the concert with the hit single. Another 5 tracks come from the predecessor to Feels So Good, 1976's Main Squeeze album. The rest of the concert explores his earlier catalog with the exception of the Main Theme to the soundtrack from the movie Children Of Sanchez that made up the dreaded "now we'd like to play something from our new album" part of the concert. The whole thing is Mangione's brand of instrumental white boy funk meets jazz/pop which, at the time, was right in the wheelhouse of this teenaged trumpet player trying to expand his musical horizons. Not as good as the later 1980 live album Tarentella (which, to my knowledge, has yet to be reissued digitally in any format), it has kept me company often throughout the years (see memory below).

I'm glad the CD reissue included the original liner notes because they are unintentionally humorous. The whole recap of the weekend concert is written in the same vainglorious style. My take: "Conditions were against us! Traffic in LA was too much! The July heat was nearing 100 degrees! Code Red! Situation: critical! I don't know how we pulled off this miracle of a concert, but we did! Indeed, it was an evening of magic." Hilarious.

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "attractive enough in its own, highly commercial way"
• CashBox: "hard to resist"
• Billboard: "designed for relaxed entertaining"

Maybe Chuck got some airplay on WKRP

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #27
• Billboard Jazz: #5
• CashBox: #37
• CashBox Jazz: #3
• Rolling Stone: #53

Tracks:  My favorites are Feels So Good and Land Of Make Believe. I'm not much for the Children of Sanchez stuff.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  I love this album, if only for nostalgia's sake. I got my album set from one of those Columbia House "12 for a Penny" promos and listened to it only rarely (who has time for a 2 LP set when you've got important high school stuff to do?). However, in college, it became an important part of a routine that hasn't varied much since then. During my freshman year of college, I needed to write a paper for English class that was due on a Monday. Respecting time-honored traditions, I waited until Sunday to get started. For some reason, I selected this album to listen to as I wrote. Everything went well; I made an A in the course. From that point on, Monday due dates meant Sunday morning writing while listening to Mangione's Live At The Hollywood Bowl. When I started grad school back in 1998, I found the recording on CD and began using it as background music while I wrote exciting papers along the lines of "The Effect of Calculator Use on Mathematics Achievement for Urban Elementary School Students." Mozart called this 'musical wallpaper' as he would often compose music to be played in the background at royal social gatherings back in his day. To this day, this album is still my "go to" music when I need to hunker down and get some serious writing done.

Also, I had a good friend in high school named Missy that saw Chuck in concert around 1980 and brought me this pinback from the show:

Previously revisited for the blog:
Everything For Love (2000)
Feels So Good (1977)
Land Of Make Believe (1973)