Search - Chuck Mangione :: Chuck Mangione - Greatest Hits

Still Great!!!!

Christopher Covais | New York | 07/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Relatively recent, this cd presents Chuck with his 1980's band, featuring old time partner, Chris Vadala, right after Mangione made his comeback. Rather than go into the studio, Chuck took his band to the popular jazz club in New York City, The Village Gate. I guess that club was very used to straight ahead jazz groups preforming there, but Chuck and his band, didn't hold back on this preformane. I give it an A for song selection, and an A+ for energy! The cd starts off with Mangione's classic, or maybee more appropriately, standard, Hot Consuelo. I always pictured The Village Gate to be an old "musty", and smoky place, but in this recording, there is a lot of livelyness and echos, if you will. The Mangione Band gets into some heavy improvisations here. Other greats on this cd are Hide And Seek, always done at a killer tempo, Legend Of The One-Eyed Sailor, and of course, Feels So Good. The group mellows out on Bellevia, and features a vocal of Freddie's Walkin'. You might be fooled by the title, Greatest Hits, and think that this cd is a compilation, but it's not. This cd is a wild live album, by one of contemporary jazz's most profound musicians, Chuck Mangione!"