‘Lightweight’ Mangione plays the heavy at Blue Note

Steve Bornfeld

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2000 | 9:48 a.m.

We got them Condescension Blues.

Such is the curse of the jazz guy with the pop hits. The guy whose music is welcomed by the pop world while his status is stamped "INTERLOPER." The guy whose mainstream marketability is embraced by the jazz world while his status is stamped "SELLOUT."

We quote on from the aforementioned flier: "Throughout the 1970s, Chuck Mangione was a celebrity ... yet few of his fans from the era knew that his original goal was to be a bebopper ... (His band) cut a fine set in 1972 but otherwise his recordings in the 1970s generally used large orchestras and vocalists putting the emphasis on lightweight melodies."

Listen to the air rushing out of the hype balloon. You couldn't get any more nose-in-the-air elitist if you were describing Kathie Lee Gifford attempting "Carmen."

Well, to hell with 'em.

No one needs to apologize for Chuck Mangione -- least of all Mangione himself -- as the Young Man With a Flugelhorn proved Monday night at the kick off to a six-night Blue Note gig.

Standing tall with cohorts Grant Geissman (guitar), Charles Meeks (bass and vocals), Gerry Niewood (sax and flute), Dave Tull (drums) and Don Alias (percussion), Mangione stood by that ethereal elegance that has characterized his career. His warm, elfin melodies have always flirted with the fanciful, like the soundtrack to one of those lush, goose-pimply dreams that leave you hugging the pillow, floating between heaven and Earth. But check out the jaw-dropping jazz chops as Mangione alternates between horn and synthesizer. This is a master at work.

Opening with "The Land of Make Believe," the sextet builds on overlapping melodic tension, like a snowball gathering speed down a slope. What begins as an otherworldly musical poem erupts into an all-out jazz jam -- guitarist Geissman is ferocious here, and Niewood's nimble flute sprays notes with elliptical precision around Mangione's horn riffs -- then cagily down-shifts back into the waif-like melody line.

The charming "Peggy Hill" -- which Mangione penned for an episode of Fox's "King of the Hill," on which he has a recurring animated role -- was followed by a truly amazing "Amazing Grace," with Mangione's muffled horn both prayerful and slightly playful, then giving way to Geissman's fervent interpretation. The pack picked up the pace with the Olympic anthem "Give It All You Got," then accelerated into high gear with "Fun and Games," a scorcher that found saxman Niewood and Meeks on harmonica turning out deep-fried funk that would have had the Colonel movin' to the groovin'.

Mangione also knew how to mix it up, coaxing the crowd to join into the infectious scat opening of "Pina Colada" -- "trippin' with Chuck," he called it -- and allowing Meeks to shine vocally on the haunting overture to "Children of Sanchez." The gigantic hit -- and gigantically pleasing -- "Feels So Good" was the pre-encore closer, with "Freddy's Walkin'," a jubilant funk-out-the-joint rouser, sealing the deal.

Lightweight? Somebody's scale is busted.