The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

They called him “The Hat.”

Chuck Mangione, with his trademark black-felt, narrow-brimmed topper and his big, brassy fluegelhorn, burst out of the jazz world and into pop music in the late ‘70s with “Feels So Good,” a monster hit and a rare example of a jazz tune hitting the top of the pop charts.

But throughout much of the ‘80s, Mangione wasn’t feeling so good. His visibility dimmed, his recording career stalled and he was hit with what he terms “major burnout.”

In the early ‘90s, he retired completely from the music scene for three years.

“I don’t think too many people noticed,” Mangione says sardonically, “because most of them thought I died in 1982. And the reason they think I died is because A&M; records never released most of my albums--’Children of Sanchez,’ ‘Live at the Hollywood Bowl,’ ‘Bellavia,’ ‘Chase the Clouds Away’--on CD. It was like I disappeared with the LP era.”

Mangione’s reported demise, however, was premature, and he is now working on a comeback. Currently in the middle of a national tour, he has material for three albums and a video in the can and is negotiating for the reissuing of his hit A&M; albums on compact disc.

“I’ve tried everything from crying to threatening Italian style, just to get those albums released on CD,” says Mangione, his rapid-fire conversational style a brisk counterpoint to his easygoing, relaxed tunes. “But I’m encouraged now that they’ll finally get around to it.”

Then, pausing for a quick breath, he adds with a laugh: “Do I sound enthusiastic, or what?”

Mangione’s musical formula, a mixture of appealing melodies and brisk jazz rhythms performed by solid jazz players, produced impressive commercial achievements in the late ‘70s. His “Land of Make Believe,” “Chase the Clouds Away” and “Feels So Good” were among the most popular jazz recordings of the decade. Between 1978 and 1980, four of his albums crossed over to land in the Top 30 of the Billboard pop music charts, with “Feels So Good” reaching No. 2 (behind only the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack).

With his capacity to blend a relaxed jazz feel with tunes and interpretations that could touch a mass pop audience, Mangione, now 56, was Kenny G before there was a Kenny G.

“Our music doesn’t assault you with volume,” he says as he prepares for a six-night “ ‘Feels So Good’ Reunion” run starting Tuesday at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City, with most of the players from the original recording. “You don’t need a dictionary to understand it, you’ll remember the melodies, and it’s played by incredibly good musicians.”

Mangione’s commercial achievements paved the way for the new adult contemporary, or NAC, smooth-jazz players who followed him. Kenny G, for example, started his career with some authentic jazz skills before moving into the arena of flashy pop jazz. Interestingly, G has cited Grover Washington Jr.--a player, despite his pop success, with solid jazz credentials--as an influence, but it’s hard to imagine that G, John Tesh, David Sanborn, Dave Koz and other NAC artists were not vividly aware of Mangione’s ‘70s achievements.

Mangione, however, is quick to disclaim any creative linkages with G and the others.

“I think that Kenny G is good at connecting and talking to people,” Mangione says. “I’ll bet he gives a good interview, and he’s probably a good businessman. But he plays as though he gets paid by the note. John Tesh is a great guy, but every song he plays sounds like the one before.”

Mangione does, however, believe that the success of Tesh, G and others reflects an audience need.

“They’re doing something that everybody should be looking at,” he says. “And I think it has to do with the fact that people are tired of being assaulted and blasted with volume and with being preached at. They need relief. So whatever Yanni and Tesh and guys like that are putting out must be bringing some kind of tranquillity to people.”

He would, of course, prefer that the need for tranquillity be satisfied by Mangione music rather than Tesh music.

“I’m loaded with product,” he says. “And I still have a lot of music in my brain to write down.”

Mangione was hardly the first jazz artist to break through to the pop charts. Such other pop-oriented performers as Washington, Les McCann and Eddie Harris have had their successes. And jazz great Louis Armstrong had a No. 1 album and single with “Hello, Dolly!” in 1964. In 1962, Stan Getz essentially remained true to his basic jazz muse with “Jazz Samba,” a No. 1 album; in 1964 “Getz/Gilberto” (which included the No. 5 single “The Girl From Ipanema”) became a No. 2 album.

Pianist Ellis Marsalis, patriarch of the influential jazz family, points out that hit recordings, even those that don’t necessarily rise to the top of the pop charts, can have a significant effect for jazz artists.

“Almost every great jazz musician has had a hit record of one sort or another,” he says, in a telephone interview from New Orleans. “The records may not be the best example of their music, but they do bring the musicians the attention they deserve. I mean, think about it: Louis Armstrong had ‘Hello, Dolly!’; Duke Ellington had so many; Dave Brubeck had ‘Take Five’; Miles Davis had all those ballads and the ‘Kind of Blue’ album.”

Marsalis might have added Weather Report’s “Birdland” and Herbie Hancock’s “Headhunters,” Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder” or Ramsey Lewis’ “The ‘In’ Crowd.” And John Coltrane is still known, even to casual jazz listeners, for his extraordinary rendering of “My Favorite Things.”

Less noticeable, but more recently, jazz has also influenced the pop market through artists attempting to blend current pop market elements--reggae, hip-hop, rap--with traditional jazz qualities. Branford Marsalis’ group Buckshot LeFonque, whose latest album (“Music Evolution” on Columbia) will be released this month, is a prime example, but Hancock has been exploring similar territory since the success of his 1983 album “Future Shock” and the single “Rockit.” Former pop diva Debbie Harry has been working lately with the iconoclastic group the Jazz Passengers, mixing avant-garde snippets with sardonic humor and camp-tinged vocals.

And, in an interesting sidebar to the jazz-pop connection, many mainstream jazz performers are benefiting financially from the use of a variety of music segments from their earlier recordings in the work of mix-oriented groups such as Us3.

The great value of a crossover hit is that it can take a jazz artist’s record sales well beyond the numbers of a typical--even a successful--release that remains within the niche jazz market. Mangione’s “Feels So Good,” for example, has sold more than 2 million copies.

Ironically, “Feels So Good” was never conceived with “hit” in mind. The original version was more than nine minutes long.

“At that time,” Mangione recalls, “the Bee Gees were saturating radio with ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ and program directors were going nuts for something else. We did major surgery on ‘Feels So Good’ and cut it down to three minutes.

“Then, without my knowing it, the engineer thought it might be a hair too slow and cranked it up a half a step in pitch. I didn’t find out until I went on a radio show and the deejay asked me to play along with it. I said, ‘Sure,’ and then I discovered it was a half-tone higher. I said ‘What? I’m half a step flat.’ But it worked.”

And Mangione’s career as a crossover jazz artist was off and running.

“I think, in some ways, that ‘Feels So Good’ was a fluke,” he says. “I knew we were on to something but when the record company wanted to follow with another hit, I knew we’d have to work hard to make it happen.”

Mangione cites two important aspects that he kept in mind in his efforts to follow up the success of “Feels So Good.”

“First,” he says, “we had a mailing list with more than 100,000 names that we built up when we were working clubs--long before anybody in jazz knew what a mailing list was or what they could do with it.

“And second, I felt, I still feel, that the music always has to be melodic. Plenty of groups have great trumpet players or great saxophone players. But how many times can you remember a melody when you walk out the door? I knew then, and now, that I wanted to make records that, although they weren’t meant to be commercial or to fit into any slot, would be successful because they had melodies that people would remember.”

Mangione intends to take similar steps in his effort to revive his career. It will, however, be a bit more difficult, at least in one significant area, for him to realize similar goals. The widespread radio airplay that was so vital to “Feels So Good” will likely not be available. Radio, far more niche-oriented in the ‘90s than in the past, allows few options for the programming of jazz works other than on NAC and smooth-jazz stations.

“It’s a whole different ballgame today,” Mangione acknowledges. “I know that. But whatever it takes, I’ll do it. I believe that these things go in cycles. We’ve got parents who heard our ‘Feels So Good’ 20 years ago who are now bringing their kids to hear it all over again. And I’ve got a whole bunch of new music for them to hear.”

Rochester, N.Y.-born Mangione was immersed in jazz almost from the very beginning.

“It’s funny,” he says, “but I was listening to Dizzy Gillespie when everybody else was listening to Elvis Presley and Bill Haley & the Comets. And it was all because of my dad, who would take my brother Gap and me to Sunday-afternoon matinees at the jazz clubs. When I was a kid, there were hordes of wonderful small groups--Miles Davis’ band, Cannonball Adderley’s band, Sonny Rollins’ band, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Charlie Ventura.”

Mangione’s father, a gregarious jazz fan, did not hesitate to invite even the most famous musicians back to his home for a meal.

“At that time,” Mangione recalls, “there were two TV stations and two movies in town. The musicians were in town for two weeks, so when they found out that they could come over to our place and hear a good record collection, have some homemade pasta and some good Italian red, it wasn’t too hard to get them to come by.

“It happened so often, so regularly, that it took me years to realize how significant it was. And I kind of grew up thinking that every kid had Carmen McRae or Art Blakey at his house.”

Mangione and his brother, a pianist, were working professionally from the time they were teenagers, initially in a band called the Jazz Brothers. Later, the horn player worked with Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman and Art Blakey (most notably on Blakey’s 1966 recording “Buttercorn Lady,” in a band that included Keith Jarrett on piano).

But Mangione’s most influential lessons, the guidelines that eventually led him to crossover success, came from Gillespie, a close family friend.

“Dizzy was the first musician I saw who wasn’t afraid to let the audience know he was having a good time,” Mangione recalls. “And he was versatile. He was a great conductor; he could work with a big band, a small band; he was great arranger, a great composer. But the most important thing was that he was a wonderful human being who knew how to make people feel at home.

“And Dizzy, as great as he was as a creative player,” adds Mangione, “knew that this is a business. He taught me that if you want to just play whatever you want to play without considering the audience--fine. But don’t expect to make a living at it. Enjoy what you do, sure. But remember there’s an audience out there.”

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* Chuck Mangione Quintet, Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave. Tuesday through next Sunday. Schedule: Tuesday through Thursday, 8:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10:15 p.m.; next Sunday, 8 p.m.; $20. Friday and Saturday, 8:30 p.m.; $22. Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:15 p.m.; next Sunday, 4 p.m.; $18. The Sunday matinee is aimed at children, with a special child’s admission of $5.