Article from BSConnections, Summer 1998

How many works is a picture worth? And what value can sound, music, and video add to the educational experience? For nearly three decades, alumnus and Buffalo State Professor Charles Mancuso has combined all these elements to bring history to life for his students. Today, the multi-media techniques he helped pioneer are still at the heart of the courses he teaches. You might say he makes Rockwell Hall rock.

His music courses include Jazz/Rock Foundations, ModernJazz, Urban Blues and Rock, and Country and Folk. He also teaches special topic courses about American films and musicals, sometimes in conjunction with faculty from other departments.

Mancuso's book, Popular Music And The Underground, is a textbook for his class. The book details the history of Anerican music, from the conception of jazz, blues, country, and rock 'n' roll. It is one of the most comprehensive books ever written about the history of jazz and rock in America, where both forms of music originated. He bagan writing the book with the intention of covering the 21st century (1900-2000), but he found that there was simply too much information, and he was only hitting "the tip of the iceberg."

Unlike the typical text, the book has pictures on every page, in keeping with the visual aspect of Mancuso's teaching, and makes for interesting reading.

When Mancuso was a student at Buffalo State in the early 1960s, he never dreamed he would end up teacing here. A member of the Class of '66, he earned both a bachelor's degree in liberal arts and a master's degree in exceptional education from the college, then went on to complete two master's degrees in film from the University at Buffalo.

As a student at Buffalo State, Mancuso distinguished himself as leader, an innovator, and a music lover. He was captain of the basketball team, sports editor of the paper and the yearbook, and host of a weekly jazz radio program.

After graduation, he began his teaching career at Baker Hall, a lackawanna school for emotionally disturbed children, then returned to his alma mater in 1969 to team with William Tallmadge in the Musid Performing Arts Department.

William H. Tallmadge and Chuck

Mancuso went one falo step further. He decided to make the historical experience more real for the students by displaying visuals on all three available screens, including video in the middle. Thus, multimedia instruction was born at Buffalo State.

When severe cuts hit the college in 1970, Mancuso lost his full-time teaching position at Buffalo State, but he continued to teach summer classes with Tallmadge. Five years later, when Tallmadge retired, Mancuso returned to full-time teaching at the college. By 1992, he designed the room he still uses in Rockwell Hall specifically for his class. Its high-quality acoustics and surround sound features add to me students' listening experience.

In his 28 years of teaching at Buffalo State, Mancuso has been instrumental in bringing concerts and music festivals to the campus and to the community. Last semester, he coordinated a panel discussion at Buf State about bebop music, featuring Al Tinney, a prominent Buf falo pianist.

Mancuso credits many people he has known at Buffalo State, including faculty mentors, with helping to lead him in the direction he has taken in his career and in his life. In turn, he has served as a mentor for countless students, helping them to value and follow me beat of their own hearts.