The News10NBC Team details breaking News, Traffic and Weather.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – One of Rochester’s greatest musicians of all time, Chuck Mangione, died in his sleep Tuesday at the age of 84. News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean spoke with Mangione’s family.

“It was a bit of a surprise so we’re all taking a beat in letting the family know,” said Ardis Lindley, Mangione’s niece. “It’s a very large Italian family so there’s a lot of cousins to call.”

Chuck and Ardis’ dad Gap Mangione grew up working at the family food market on Joseph Avenue. They became the band called “Jazz Brothers.”

Chuck Mangione’s most famous song is “Feels So Good” but his career spanned 60 years, 30 albums and 14 Grammy nominations – music’s biggest award. He wrote the theme song to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” Olympics in Lake Placid but he always came back home to Rochester.

“My uncle Chuck has been to every major American city in the United States,” Lindley said. “And he always came back to Rochester. Always. He was born here. He was raised here. He lived his life here and then he died here.”

Inside Lindley’s tutoring school in Penfield hangs a painting by a fan of Mangione and his band. His music inspired all kinds of gifts.

“And this was one of the paintings that came as a result of his inspiration,” Lindley said.

Next to Mangione in the painting is a guitarist named Bob Sneider, now a professor at the Eastman School of Music.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “You went from being a fan, to a student to band mate. Is that right?”

Bob Sneider, Eastman School of Music: “Yeah, which is pretty wild.”

“Is there one show you remember or one moment in a show you remember?” Brean asked.

“He said to me and I remember exactly where I was when he said it. We were playing in Buffalo and he said it’s great that you’re trying to learn the music the way it was recorded on the records but I hired you to play like yourself. And it was at that point forward I felt like I started playing better,” Sneider said. “To this day it means so much to me.”

“Chuck Mangione left an indelible legacy, woven into the fabric of Eastman and the broader musical world,” said Joan and Martin Messinger Dean Kate Sheeran. “His artistry and passion for music inspired countless students and listeners. We extend our condolences to Chuck’s family and the Eastman community, and we celebrate the profound impact he made—both here in Rochester and far beyond.”

“He used to take all the kids on the road. My dad and my uncle Chuck would pack up the 6th grade kids and go on the road. We never had babysitters. We would sit on the stage. He wanted us to feel that music,” Lindley said. “He wrote the sound track to our whole family’s life.”

Mangione was in the first class of the Rochester Music Hall of Fame. His biggest hit “Feels So Good” was up for Record of the Year at the Grammys in 1978.

In a statement from Mayor Malik Evans, he says Mangione and his family “epitomized the strength, resilience, and compassion that the people of Rochester are so well known for.”

Evans also said Rochester is fortunate to hear the “underlying beauty of our city,” in the notes that will forever be Mangione’s legacy.

Read Evans full statement here:

“Please join me today in offering a thought or prayer for the Mangione family in memory of Rochester’s own Chuck Mangione, who passed away Tuesday.

Chuck Mangione was a gifted jazz musician and composer who earned international distinction, and Rochester’s pride, as a two-time grammy winner. He was also an inductee of the Rochester Music Hall of Fame and a graduate and educator at the Eastman School of Music. He and his brother, Gap Mangione, honed their art forms in Rochester’s legendary Pythodd Club on Clarissa Street, where their family became close friends with Dizzy Gillespie.

Beyond his well-deserved accolades as a musician, Chuck and his family epitomized the strength, resilience, and compassion that the people of Rochester are so well known for. Born and raised in Northeast Rochester, Chuck attended Franklin High School and lived in the house behind his family’s grocery store on Martin Street. As the demographic and economic conditions of the neighborhood evolved, the Mangione family remained committed to their customers and the invaluable service their store provided to the community.

Famously, Mangione’s Grocery opened for business every day during the Riots of July 1964 because they knew the people of the neighborhood needed food and drink regardless of the turbulent conditions on the streets outside. Mangione’s Grocery was among the businesses in the area that were not looted or burned during the riots, which is a testament to the mutual admiration and respect shared between the Mangione family and their community.

The many virtues of this upbringing deeply resonate in the music that Chuck Mangione composed and performed on the world stage. We in Rochester are truly fortunate to hear the underlying beauty of our city in those notes that will forever be Chuck Mangione’s legacy.”

AI assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses AI