There are tribute shows, and then there are tribute shows that feel like they were always supposed to happen in a particular city. Rick Braun bringing his Rick Braun Plays Chuck Mangione tour to Kodak Center on Friday, November 13 is the second kind.
Rick Braun Plays Chuck Mangione
Chuck Mangione was born in Rochester and never really left — not spiritually, anyway. He attended the Eastman School of Music, taught there after graduation, and composed the theme for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid — practically our backyard. When he was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2012, he said that of all the awards he had received, that one would have made his parents proudest because it came from Rochester. He passed away on July 24, 2025, at age 84, leaving behind a catalog anchored by “Feels So Good” — a Grammy-winning single that reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and a city that still claims him as one of its own.
Rick Braun knows the Eastman hallways too. He studied there, and when he decided to record a tribute album honoring Mangione following his death, he did it with the kind of reverence that goes beyond just covering the songs. He performs on a Giardinelli mouthpiece that Mangione personally gifted him at the 2007 Long Beach Jazz Festival. That detail matters. This is not a recreation project — it is a musician honoring a mentor with the man’s own instrument in his hands.
The album — released March 6, 2026 — works through Mangione’s catalog: “Land of Make Believe,” “Bellavia,” “Children of Sanchez,” “Give It All You Got,” “Doin’ Everything with You,” and of course, “Feels So Good.” Braun has stacked his career on more than 30 Billboard #1 hits in contemporary jazz; he knows his way around a melody.
About Kodak Center
Kodak Center is a 2,400-seat theater at 200 W Ridge Rd in Rochester — a proper room for a night that deserves one. Showtime is 7:30 PM.
Tickets
Tickets are available now on Ticketmaster. This one is worth the drive.