AMG Review of Children of Sanchez

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Thanks to the Latin-inflected title track, Children of Sanchez became another huge hit for Chuck Mangione. The title song even earned him a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, and serious jazz listeners will spot a problem with that award -- it was for pop, not jazz. That, of course, is an accurate assessment of Mangione's music, since there isn't much improvisation on the album at all. Instead, there's a selection of Spanish and Latin-flavored instrumentals, arranged as if to give the impression that the album is a song cycle. If so, it's a song cycle/concept album that doesn't go anywhere. Nevertheless, there's enough pleasant music here to satisfy fans of his pop stylings.