Mangione played with
Art Blakey's band in the 1960s. He and his brother led the Mangione Brothers Sextet/Quintet, who recorded three albums for
Riverside Records before Mangione branched out with other work. One of his compositions for the Mangione Brothers Sextet, "Something Different", was recorded by
Cannonball Adderley on Adderley's 1961 album
African Waltz. Mangione attended the
Eastman School of Music in Rochester from 1958 to 1963 where he started playing the
flugelhorn. In the late 1960s, Mangione was a member of the National Gallery, a band. In 1968, the band released the album
Performing Musical Interpretations of the Paintings of Paul Klee. He served as the director of the Eastman jazz ensemble from 1968 to 1972. In 1970, he recorded the album
Friends and Love in concert with the
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and guest performers. Mangione's quartet with saxophonist
Gerry Niewood was a popular concert and recording act throughout the 1970s. "Bellavia", recorded during the collaboration won Mangione his first
Grammy Award in 1977 in the category
Best Instrumental Composition. "Bellavia" was used by
WHAS-TV in
Louisville, Kentucky as background music for school closings; it was first used during the
Blizzard of 1978. In addition to his quartet with Niewood, Mangione had much success with his later-1970s ensemble, with Chris Vadala on saxophones and flutes,
Grant Geissman on guitars, Charles Meeks on bass guitar, and James Bradley Jr. on drums. This version of Mangione's band recorded and toured behind the hit studio albums
Feels So Good and
Fun and Games and the
Children of Sanchez soundtrack. Some band members participated in the "Tarantella" benefit concert in 1980. The song "
Feels So Good" became a rare instrumental Top Ten hit, reaching No. 4 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. Mangione's composition "Chase the Clouds Away" was used at the
1976 Summer Olympics in
Montreal, Quebec. His composition "
Give It All You Got" was the theme to the
1980 Winter Olympic Games in
Lake Placid, New York. He performed it live on a global television broadcast at the closing ceremonies. In 1978, Mangione composed the soundtrack for the film
The Children of Sanchez starring
Anthony Quinn. In 1980,
Current Biography, a magazine, called "Feels So Good" the most recognized tune since "
Michelle" by
the Beatles. With the ticket sales from his 60th-birthday concert held in 2000 at Rochester's
Eastman Theatre, Mangione raised more than $50,000 for St. John's Nursing Home. In 2009,
Gerry Niewood and
Coleman Mellett, two members of Mangione's band, were killed in the crash of
Colgan Air Flight 3407 outside of
Buffalo, New York. Mangione retired in 2015 and sold his copyrights to
Primary Wave in 2024. ==Acting career and television appearances==