www.millercenter.racc.edu\/rick-braun-plays-chuck-mangione<\/a>or by calling the box office at 610-607-6270 Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.<\/p>\n\u201cI am so excited to have the opportunity to perform the music of Chuck Mangione for all my Berks Jazz Fest friends and fans,\u201d Braun said. \u201cWith the concert set for International Jazz Day and the being finale of the JAM celebration, it will be a special evening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joining Braun on stage will be Nate Phillips on bass, Tony Pulizzi on guitar, Alex Bailey on drums, Carnell Harrell on keyboards, Marqueal Jordan on sax, and The Berks Horns \u2014 Mike Anderson, sax; Rob Diener, trumpet; and John Loos, trombone.<\/p>\n
Following Mangione\u2019s death in July 2025, Braun, a trumpeter and flugelhornist, reflected publicly with a heartfelt Facebook post, sharing an impromptu performance of Mangione\u2019s Grammy-winning classic \u201cFeels So Good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Accompanied by a deeply personal memory of the one time he met Mangione, the moment became the emotional catalyst for the album.<\/p>\n
In 2007, when both artists were performing at the Long Beach Jazz Festival, Braun gathered the courage to knock on the Mangione\u2019s trailer door and introduce himself.<\/p>\n
Mangione welcomed him warmly, and the two bonded over their connection to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., where Mangione earned his degree and later served as professor and founding director of the Eastman Jazz Ensemble, departing just a year before Braun enrolled as a student.<\/p>\n
Before Braun left to prepare for his own performance, Mangione presented him with an extraordinary gift: his cherished Giardinelli flugelhorn mouthpiece, inscribed simply \u201cCM.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braun never saw Mangione again.<\/p>\n
When he decided to create a full-length tribute project not long after posting the social media performance, he honored that connection by using Mangione\u2019s mouthpiece on every track \u2014 creating a powerful musical through-line between mentor and admirer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIronically, I had been performing \u2018Feels So Good\u2019 in my live shows for a year before Chuck passed,\u201d Braun said. \u201cWhen I put the mouthpiece in my horn for the tribute video, it hit me that he once played this regularly \u2014 and now it was in my hands. It was emotional. And suddenly I felt someone should revisit his incredible body of work and celebrate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalled discovering Mangione\u2019s music during his time at Eastman, particularly the beloved \u201cLand of Make Believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChuck was the first non-straight-ahead horn player I embraced when I began playing flugelhorn,\u201d Braun said. \u201cIt has such a warm, welcoming sound. What set him apart was the overwhelming sense of happiness in his music. Re-exploring these melodies brought back wonderful memories \u2014 but more importantly, they filled me with joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given Mangione\u2019s lasting impact and Braun\u2019s desire to do the material justice, he said this project took on a life of its own.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than any album I\u2019ve done, this one took me over,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI worked diligently to get every detail right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braun also returned to his roots in another meaningful way \u2014 recording the album on the same Couesnon flugelhorn he played as a student at Eastman and later with the band Auracle in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n
Long thought lost, the instrument was rediscovered in the attic by his wife, Christiane, and has since rejoined his regular performance lineup.<\/p>\n
From an initial list of 20 possible songs, Braun narrowed the tribute to nine carefully chosen selections.<\/p>\n
The first two were obvious: \u201cLand of Make Believe\u201d and \u201cGive It All You Got,\u201d co-produced with keyboardist Philippe Saisse.<\/p>\n
\u201cLand of Make Believe\u201d features sweeping orchestration, Saisse\u2019s energetic piano solo, and a fascinating flugelhorn\/trombone duality from Braun.<\/p>\n
The funky \u201cGive It All You Got\u201d \u2014 Mangione\u2019s second pop hit \u2014 includes a powerhouse sax solo from Tom Scott, with Scott later doubling Braun\u2019s horn lines over Tony Pulizzi\u2019s jangling guitar and a buoyant rhythm section groove.<\/p>\n
Guitarist Grant Geissman \u2014 who toured with Mangione during his 1976\u20131980 pop heyday and created the iconic solo on the single version of \u201cFeels So Good\u201d \u2014 was another early call.<\/p>\n
Rather than recreate his famous performance, Geissman lent his signature guitar artistry to the soulful ballad \u201cDoin\u2019 Everything With You,\u201d along with two selections from Mangione\u2019s landmark 1978 soundtrack album \u201cThe Children of Sanchez\u201d \u2014 the dreamy Bellavia and the epic, seven-minute-plus title track.<\/p>\n
Braun and saxophonist Richard Elliot team up for an energized version of \u201cFeels So Good\u201d and the romantic ballad \u201cDo I Dare to Fall in Love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other special guests include Grammy-nominated flutist Steve Kujala \u2014 Braun\u2019s former Auracle bandmate \u2014 who adds lyrical finesse to \u201cLong Hair Soulful\u201d and engages in a captivating flute-flugelhorn dialogue on \u201cLove Wears No Disguise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additional contributors include Darryl Williams (bass), Gorden Campbell (drums), Lenny Castro (percussion), Alex Bailey (bass\/drums), Nate Phillips (bass), Carnell Harrell (keyboards), Tiffany Johns (French horn), and Nick Lane (trombone).<\/p>\n
Rick Braun Plays Chuck Mangione marks an auspicious beginning to Braun\u2019s fourth decade as a recording artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I was playing Chuck\u2019s melodies and improvising over them,\u201d Braun said, \u201cI thought about the gifts he left us \u2014 how they inspired my own voice on flugelhorn. I remembered that moment in his dressing room, how much I admired him, and approached this album with reverence and awe. I like to imagine him hearing it, accepting it warmly \u2014 maybe even giving me a hug and saying, \u2018Good job, Rick!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
More information<\/p>\n
For a complete schedule of the BJF35\/Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) Celebration, see Page XX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over a career spanning more than three decades, Rick Braun has built one of contemporary jazz\u2019s most inspiring,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1681,1213,128,130,129,289],"class_list":["post-151506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-entertainment","tag-music-and-concerts","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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