"We don't insult people's intelligence and we try not to assault people with volume.'' Jazz trumpeter Chuck Mangione -- who some call the father of `smooth jazz' an honorific which he seemingly bristles at -- is in Bermuda this week to kick off the fourth Jazz Festival.

He will perform two sets tomorrow night at the Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts. "When people leave a Chuck Mangione performance, they will remember the melodies,'' he said this weekend at a local hotel.

"I think the ingredients in Chuck Mangione music that make our performances vibrant are strong melodic content, a rhythmic pulse, and space for improvisation,'' he added.

Educated at the Eastman School of Music in his hometown of Rochester, New York, Mr. Mangione -- "call me Chuck'' -- believes strongly in the promotion of music education in building better people.

Artists should give more of their time to schools and youth groups where music programme budgets are shrinking, to encourage young people's creative talents.

He should know. As a youngster, his father took him and his siblings to musical performances of all types, and would often invite them to the Mangione home.

"I thought every kid knew Carmen McRae, Duke (Ellington), (Count) Basie, and Ella (Fitzgerald),''' Mr. Mangione explained. "They just wanted some good Italian pasta when they were in Rochester!'' He would later pick up the trumpet after watching "Young man with a Horn'' a film staring Kirk Douglas and by the early 1960's was playing with Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Kai Winding and then exploded on the scene with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

From the 1960's through to 1988 Mr. Mangione toured constantly before going into semi-retirement and only this year has he produced new music.

"My disappointment with music today is from an educational point of view,'' he said. "Today you have these "smooth jazz'' stations which are owned by big corporations who stick to the top ten tracks. That is so dangerous because it locks out so many talented people.

"I feel good about being in music for some 50 years, playing with my own band, and my own music,'' he added. "Music is so important to life. This loss of music education, I don't think is a very good thing. If you think about it, music is one of God's great gifts to mankind.'' "With my `Cat in a Hat' programme, I'm not looking for the next Dizzy, but I'm looking to expose them. It's an alternative to TV.'' Mr. Mangione will be at the Elbow Beach Hotel tonight between 6.30 p.m. and 8 p.m. to sign autographs at a cocktail party hosted by the hotel.

Chuck Mangione: Will perform two sets tomorrow night at the Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts.

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