Chuck Mangione composed the song Soft, showcasing the beautiful vocals of Esther Satterfield, and released it on his 1975 album Chase the Clouds Away. The intro and outro feature delicate flute lines played by Gerry Niewood, while Chuck accompanies on Fender Rhodes without ever picking up his flugelhorn.

For our 2022 recording of Soft, we’ve not attempted to clone the original. Instead, the flute melody became my flugelhorn part, Jean Michel covered the piano lines on baritone guitar, and Jasmine added the voice of an angel.

No transcription to share this time around. The melody is simple enough, but for the chords I (finally) used a piano sheet from the long-out-of-print Chuck Mangione 1977 Song Book that has been in my collection since I was a teenager. Finally, after all those years on my bookshelf, it feels so good to be able to play something from that book. 😉

Chuck Mangione – 1977 Song Book. Copyright © 1977 Gates Music Inc.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

PS: Fans of Chuck Mangione’s music may be interested in joining the Chuck Mangione Facebook Group, where I’m a member of the admin team.