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Although I'm known mainly as a rock'n'roller, my musical roots lie in the genre known today as “smooth jazz” and that is the music I first got into as a young boy. In fact, it was Chuck Mangione's mega-hit song “Feels So Good” that introduced me to the world of smooth jazz, and this article is therefore dedicated to Chuck Mangione: the man, the myth, and the cartoon character (as seen on “King of the Hill”). Chuck's album “Feels So Good” was the first album I ever bought, way, way back when. It's also one of the few albums I didn't pawn off years later when I was experiencing hard times – no way, man, that album meant too much to me! Ah yes, I remember dearly tape recording the song on my cassette recorder off of the AM radio (where it was a top-40 hit for quite some time, a huge feat for an instrumental song) and listening to it over and over and over again until I finally broke down and bought the 45 RPM single, followed shortly after by a purchase of the album by the same name. As a wee lad I spent endless hours playing my electric guitar along with the album, trying my best to mimic the guitar wizardry of “General' Grant Geismann (Chuck's guitarist at the time) and “Feels So Good” is the album that indeed taught me the essentials of the wah-wah rythum guitar technique.

They still play “Feels So Good” on Smooth Jazz radio today- supposedly it is the number one smooth jazz hit of all time and according to Wikipedia “the most widely recognized melody since 'Michelle' by the Beatles”- and needless to say I was a huge fan and Chuck's music is a big part of what made me the “Huggy Blow” I am today, so it was indeed very excellent to finally see Chuck Mangione blow his flugelhorn live at the Jazz Alley September 6th, 2008, with his four-piece backing band. Chuck and crew were in town for a three night run at the Jazz Alley, playing two sets a night, and my lovely date and I caught the late Friday night show.

Chuck played for an hour and a half that night, a night which included many of his classic hits, most of which I recognized from his albums “Feels so Good,” “Main Squeeze,” and “Children of Sanchez.” Chuck seemed to start off a bit rough, blowing a few sour otes on his flugelhorn in the first song, but after that he was golden. I felt chills that night, just hearing songs that I haven't heard in years and years, and of course as an encore came “the song that, thanks to you guys, put my daughters through college” as Chuck put it — “Feels So Good.” It wasn't the best version of the song I'd ever heard,mainly because the guitarist didn't rip out an improvised cool guitar solo like Grant Geisman used to do, but still it was mighty cool to finally see the song performed live. Overall, Chuck and his band put on a heckuva good show that, and it's hard to believe that the man is 67 years old. It was indeed the show of the year for me, a night of pure magic, and I'm happy to report that Chuck still wears the same hat and beard he had on in 1976, although the beard is now gray.

After the concert Chuck was gracious enough to meet with his fans and sign autographs. He wasn't too amused, however, when I told him “Chuck, it feels so good to finally meet you!” Yeah… I had a few beers in me. Hyuk hyuk. It seemed funny to me at the time. I also told him, “That was the first album I ever bought in my life, man!” to which he responded, “Allright!” However, in spite of my lame introduction, I did receive a nice autograph from the Man in the Hat, which I had him sign to “Huggy Blow,” which as I explained to him, is my Smooth Jazz name.

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Its been in the papers today so you might hear rather a lot about richard heene in the coming daytimes.

According to his brother, a six-year-old boy from Fort Collins, Colorado climbed into an experimental balloon he and his dad were building that was tethered in their backyard. He somehow managed to untether the balloon, and became trapped inside the small compartment in the bottom of the balloon when it got too high for him to escape. The result was a bizarre and possibly tragic scene as neighbors watched the homemade balloon float high into the air. The boy was trapped for nearly three hours before the balloon landed, but according to 9News, there is still no sign of the boy. Since then, it has been revealed that the boy trapped in the balloon is the son of a reality show contestant from 'Wife Swap', Richard Heene, who is described in this article as a “mad scientist” type who has dabbled in wild experiments, inventions, ideas, and books. 9News also describes Richard Heene as a storm chaser.

The balloon the 6-year-old boy and son of Richard Heene became trapped in is silver and disc-shaped with a shoddy compartment at the bottom that was not meant for a person to be carried in. It landed near Denver after being airborne for about 3 hours, but there has still been no sign of the boy, despite authorities stating that he was still inside when it landed after slowly deflating. Before the balloon landed, an attempt to rescue the trapped boy by helicopter was being planned by lowering someone down to the balloon and attaching weights to make the balloon slowly lower down. But no interference was needed, as the balloon slowly lowered itself down and landed softly in a dirt field of its own accord. Residents in the area are used to seeing hot air balloons in the sky, but nothing like the homemade craft the poor 6-year-old boy was trapped in.

Unfortunately, as I write this, there has been no news on what happened to Richard Heene's son. Could he have fallen from the craft? Did he run away after it landed? And is there a possibly his brother lied and he was never in it at all? The media is closely following this bizarre and possibly tragic event, so I'm sure we'll all know soon enough. And perhaps “mad scientist” and 'Wife Swap' star Richard Heene has learned a valuable lesson from all of this: don't leave your children around your experiments unattended.

SOURCES: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091015/ap_on_re_us/us_boy_in_balloon
http://franksfunnies.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/richard-heene-on-wife-swap/
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=125161&catid=339

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