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Article from BSConnections, Summer 1998
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By Mike Healy / Buffalo Courier-
Express Oct. 13, 1979
CHUCK MANCUSO, loaded down with a pack full of slide carousels and music tapes, arrived in his classroom at 8 in the morning on the first morning that it had been necessary to scrape ice off the car windshield. The 14 or so students in the classroom were still thawing out their fingers, getting ready to take notes. They must be Mancuso devotees to be in class at Buffalo State College so early, I thought.
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 By Amy Stickney Since early childhood Charles Mancuso has always been influenced by music. He spent his time listening to the popular music in his father's record collection; from there on in he was hooked. |
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 The Jazz Tradition Black-and-white images of Ella Fitzgerald - the entire subject of the day's lecture - appear on the screens in a Rockwell Hall classroom. "I have a terrific picture of you and Ella that you gave me," Performing Arts Professor Charles Mancuso reminds his colleague and friend, visiting artist Mark Murphy. Left unsaid is that the jazz legend on the screen considered Murphy her "equal." Students in Mancuso’s Modern Jazz class usually experience their subject matter through their professor’s insightful contextual commentary, and extensive audiovisual collection. This fall they are also learning from the unique perspective of a world-renowned singer who has lived - and enhanced - the American jazz scene. |
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Interview by Lance Boos
Chuck Mancuso is not the typical music professor at Buffalo State College. In a curriculum that focuses so strongly on the traditions of classical music, Professor Mancuso has etched out a nearly 40 year career teaching jazz and popular music. The scope of his knowledge is encyclopedic, expertly covering jazz, blues, rock, folk, country, and the Hollywood musical; all of which he covers in his various courses, and his massive book, Popular Music and the Underground: Foundations of Jazz, Blues, Country and Rock, 1900-1950. His Jazz and Rock Foundations class, which is offered in three sections every semester, as well as during the summer, is one of the most popular offerings at Buffalo State.
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