WASHINGTON, April 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and Chuck Mangione launched the eighth annual Jazz Appreciation Month today with a special ceremony in the museum's Carmichael Auditorium marking the 100th anniversary of Benny Goodman's birth.

Two members of Chuck Mangione's band were killed Thursday night in the commuter plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., said the jazz musician's publicist. Mangione's representative told TMZ that band members Gerry Niewood and Coleman Mellett were among the 50 people killed when the flight from Newark, N.J.,

By Bob Karlovits Chuck Mangione says he doesn't mind having his career driven by the popularity of a 30-year-old song. "It is not a bother at all," says the flugelhornist who, in 1977, had a most unusual success -- a jazz hit on pop charts.

By Bob Karlovits Marty Ashby could not have picked a better year to expand the program at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild. Amid clubs closing or cutting back drastically and concert promoters showing steady reluctance to bring in major jazz acts, his planning rides over the ridge like the U.S.

By Jon Fassnacht, Reading Eagle, Pa. Mar. 26--Chuck Mangione, one of the best-selling jazz artists in history, brought his smooth brand of jazz/pop to the Scottish Rite Cathedral in West Reading Friday night as part of the FirstEnergy Berks Jazz Fest.