AOTW: Chuck Mangione - FUN AND GAMES (SP-3715)

[Captain Bacardi]

Chuck Mangione
FUN AND GAMES
A&M SP-3715

Released 1980
Peaked at #1 on the Jazz Albums chart and #8 on the Pop Albums chart (1980)

Format: Vinyl/8-Track/Cassette/CD

Produced by Chuck Mangione
Production Assistance: Jeff Tyzik

Songs:

• 1. Give It All You Got - 6:12 (Commissioned by ABC Sports for the 1980 Winter Olympics)
  2. You're The Best There Is - 7:30
  3. Pina Colada - 8:14
  4. I Never Missed Someone Before - 9:32
  5. Give It All You Got, But Slowly - 4:20
  6. Fun And Games - 7:14
  
  All selections written by Chuck Mangione and published by Gates Music (BMI)

Musicians:
Chuck Mangione - Flugelhorn, Electric and Acoustic Pianos, Vocal
Chris Vadala - C Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Flute, Piccolo, Soprano and Tenor Saxes
Grant Geissman - Electric, Acoustic, 12 String and Classical Guitars
Charles Meeks - Bass, Harmonica
James Bradley, Jr. - Drums, Timbales, Triangle, Congas and Cowbell
Jeff Tyzik - Trumpets
Bill Reichenbach - Trombones

Recorded and mixed at Westlake Studios, Los Angeles, California
Engineer: Mick Guzauski
Assistant Engineers: Larry Swist and Ed Cherney

Art Direction and Design: Junie Osaki
Photography: Benno Friedman
Management: Tom Iannaccone

"Fun And Games" is dedicated to the spirit of the Special Olympics. - C.M.

Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

About half of a good album. "Give It All You Got," "Pina Colada" (except for the first two minutes) and "Fun And Games" are the standouts, but the rest are forgettable or (with "...But Slowly") redundant. It seems like it attempts to reuse the Feels So Good album format, but that format is rather played out by this point.

One good thing: it wasn't an overblown mess like Children Of Sanchez.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I enjoyed "Give It All You Got" and "Pina Colada" - I actually liked the scat vocal he did. I remember seeing him in concert before this album came out and he just started doing this crazy thing. The audience loved it! He did a nice solo on this tune. The rest of the album just bored me - even the title tune.

 

[Rudy]

The title tune seems to wander a bit--I like the head arrangement (if you will), but it really needed something else beside soloing to make it stand out. It is less boring than the other tunes though.

IIRC, my buddy Dennis, who was such an ardent follower of Mangione that he played a flugelhorn rather than trumpet in our jazz combos, saw him in concert, and claims Mangione debuted "Pina Colada" for the first time at the gig. He very well may have, but who's to say some artists may say the same thing at each concert on the tour?

 

[Dave]

"Less boring", in the sense, that a few moments of the other compositions do step out of the "attempted formula" of the "intended concept" of "Give It All You Got" and the title-track intend to lock this outing in...

Give the remaining tunes a chance, bear with the endless soloing (of which the possibilities, still do get out of hand) and this makes for pleasant listening, if for still, merely only pleasant background music...

Less redundant than most product from "the Mangione music machine", but this needs more of the brush he offered from Mainsqueeze, rather than a clone of stuff like Bellavia, Feels So Good (which will be forever hard to top) and Chase The Clouds Away...

-- Dave