I thought Chuck Mangione had already passed away. I saw him play live once at a jazz festival - pretty sure it was him, Arturo Sandoval, and a couple other guys. This was 25 or 26 years ago, so there's no way to dig up the info. That performance was cool to see, because we were there to see Sandoval, but then he brought Mangione and another guy up on stage for the last song. (Mangione was the headliner for the next night.) It was so cool to watch them play together.
I have Children of Sanchez - the big 2-disc album, but haven't listened to it in a long time. Jazz bands played Children of Sanchez when I was in high school, so that was familiar, but the rest of the album felt a little more experimental or abstract or something.
I used to know a guy who knew Mangione (music store guy who had a business back east), and all I knew is that he'd done a lot of drugs. I'd never heard all the cool things about him like the gigs he did with students or sitting on stage at the end of his shows signing autographs.
