Spanish “saxofonista” José Luis Santacruz invited me to join him to record a cover of Chuck Mangione’s composition The Cannonball Run Theme. José expertly transcribed the flugelhorn part for me to play, shared here with his kind permission. Chuck Mangione composed and recorded the theme for the 1981 movie The Cannonball Run, which starred Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom … Continue reading Chuck Mangione – Cannonball Run Theme

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 … Continue reading Chuck Mangione – Soft

Chuck recorded this song for his 1994 album The Hat’s Back, and then again for his 1998 Chesky album The Feeling’s Back. This transcription and recording are based on the latter. I transcribed and recorded my parts about two years ago, but only recently added the other instruments and made something of this. Resources: Chuck … Continue reading Chuck Mangione – Aldolvio

To the 80’s is a lesser-known piece composed by my musical hero, Chuck Mangione. Chuck recorded this tune on his 1982 album Love Notes, and it has always been a favorite. Here we have my note-for-note transcription of Chuck’s improvised flugelhorn solo, which I play in the video above in tribute to Chuck. Chris Vadala’s incredible … Continue reading Chuck Mangione – To the 80’s

Chuck Mangione is, without question, the artist who most influenced my trumpet and flugelhorn playing style. About a million years ago (maybe a little less) I transcribed these charts for some of Chuck’s lesser-known pieces. I can’t recall which music scoring software I was using at the time, except that it was really clunky and difficult … Continue reading Chuck Mangione Transcriptions