Chuck Mangione

The stylus came in and I installed it easily, and Chuck Mangione sounds good — though I think it jumped a couple of grooves during “Feels So Good.” Could that mean I need more weight on the front? I think it might be the extra thickness of the new acrylic mat.

It actually sounds much better. There is still some cereal, but far less after cleaning it about ten times.

This album sounds alive, man, and it does feel good. How could some asshole ever make an album, call it Feels So Good, and release a shitty recording? I love this stuff. I see a direct connection from Mangione to Steely Dan — not thematically, LOL, but certainly musically. That wah-wah guitar. That ride cymbal. That bass riff. And of course that flugelhorn. I know that makes me white and nerdy. No apologies. I am pretty sure I have never heard a flugelhorn sound I like as much as his: the tone and the precision are spot-on, and he still makes it sound white-cool, the rhythm section tempering it all into something easy and groovy.

The presentation from the Cliffwood and the Grado is spot-on tonight — at least for this record. “Maui Waui” is totally cool and cheesy, like a wind through the palm trees at a mid-seventies yacht club. It ambles and ends where it begins. Mellow. Everyone is smiling, probably because they are all drinking the same punch. There is a flute solo and a great deal else happens before we get any flugelhorn at all. The guitar in the left channel punctuates the whole song, making comments throughout. Then the horn enters and soars and the song’s peregrination pauses for a time. Everyone gets a solo. Beauty.

Shit — Mangione played and wrote for Art Blakey. How cool is that? I would not mind finding a nice copy of Buttercorn Lady on vinyl.

Used the record cleaning kit on this one and on all the rest of my used records, then tried Feels So Good again. I am not sure I noticed much of a difference. Unfortunately.

The turntable arrived today, so this is the first record I have ever played on a deck of my own. I don’t know where I got this album — only that I have carried it around for years, along with my other two Mangiones, Hollywood Bowl and Children of Sanchez.

I did my best to clean it. The needle came down and the crackles and pops came up to meet it, excessive the whole way through. I cleaned it again, better I thought, before side two. If anything side two was worse.

So my worst vinyl fears are being realized: if these crackles and snaps are just part of listening to records, well, fuck that. The record looks fine — good shape, free of dust. Not to my ears. How disheartening.

Autumn wanted to hear a bit of “Feels So Good,” and the second time through the pops were fewer. I listened to the whole album, and it sounded excellent, but any appreciation was overshadowed by the major flaw of the medium. I would grade this copy G/VG.