Antonio Marangolo was born in Catania, Sicily, on July 22, 1949, and grew up in Acireale in a family of musicians. His younger brother became the drummer Agostino Marangolo, and the two have played together repeatedly, from a Sicilian progressive rock quartet in the early 1970s to a reunited jazz group in 2020. The family later moved to Rome, where Antonio began his professional career.

His first recordings were rock records. From 1971 he was in the Sicilian quartet Flea on the Honey, with Agostino on drums and Carlo Pennisi and Elio Volpini on guitar and bass. The group made three albums under three names without changing its line-up: Flea on the Honey (1971, sung in English), Topi o uomini (1972, as Flea) and Etna (1975, as Etna), the last an instrumental record that Italian Wikipedia describes as jazz-inspired. Discogs credits Marangolo with lead vocals, flute, harmonica, piano and organ on the first, vocals and keyboards on the second, and clarinet and keyboards on Etna. Italian Wikipedia says he worked as a rock singer and pianist from 1970 to 1976 and concentrated on the saxophone from 1976.

As a saxophonist he became a studio and touring player for Italian singers. Discogs and Italian Wikipedia place him on Rita Pavone's RP '80 and Nada's Nada (both 1979), Ornella Vanoni's Oggi le canto così n. 2 (1980), Ivano Fossati's Panama e dintorni (1981) and the 1983 debut album Un sabato italiano by Sergio Caputo. English Wikipedia lists him on saxophone on several Goblin releases between 1978 and 1983, and Discogs credits his saxophone on one track of Goblin's Volo (1982).

Two long associations began in the early 1980s. Italian Wikipedia dates his work with Paolo Conte to 1982 through 1990, and Discogs credits him on Conte's Paolo Conte (1984), Concerti (1985) and Aguaplano (1987, tenor and soprano saxophones and synthesizer), with the 1988 live album Live also on his Wikipedia list. Since 1983 he has been a saxophonist for Francesco Guccini, which the same page calls his most important collaboration. He is credited on Signora Bovary (1987), Parnassius Guccinii (1993), D'amore di morte e di altre sciocchezze (1996), Ritratti (2004) and L'ultima Thule (2012), where Discogs also lists him as producer. His other song-world credits include Vinicio Capossela's debut All'una e trentacinque circa (1990, saxophone and arrangements, a record Discogs files under jazz-funk and rhythm and blues), Claudio Lolli, Caterina Caselli, Sergio Endrigo and Miriam Makeba.

His own jazz records start with Duo (CGD, 1988), an LP of tenor and soprano saxophone with the pianist Girolamo Turone that Discogs files under contemporary jazz. In the 1990s he made Kalungumachine (Iktius, 1994) with the percussionist Peppe Consolmagno; Afa (Studiottanta Fortuna Records, 1995), a quartet date with the guitarist Andrea Allione, the bassist Aldo Mella and the drummer Ellade Bandini; Bella Maria (Amiata, 1997), Sicilian songs with the brothers Lorenzo and Enzo Mancuso, on which he plays soprano and baritone saxophones; and Desde el alma (1998), a tango-flavored record with the guitarist Juan Carlos Biondini. In 2001 he played alto and soprano saxophones on his brother's album Day By Day, and a live version of the title piece appears on the compilation Live in Toscana Jazz 2002.

Nostos (Studiottanta Fortuna Records, 2009) is a trio record with the bassist Ares Tavolazzi and Bandini, built on Marangolo's own compositions plus one piece by Conte, on which Conte is credited at the piano. The Marangolo Sirkus Trio (2013) followed, with the bassist Stefano Solani and the percussionist Gilson Silveira, Marangolo playing saxophone, piano and percussion. On January 14, 2020, he and Agostino played together at the Fourpoints by Sheraton in Aci Castello as the Marangolo Brothers Groove Agency, a contemporary jazz group with Aldo Mella and Luca Begonia whose repertoire was written by Marangolo and Mella. The post-bop album Le Mal d'Afrique (Produzioni 4e33), credited to Marangolo State 114, was released on September 25, 2020, and a quartet with Andrea Paganetto on trumpet, Claudio Bellato on electric guitar and Rodolfo Cervetto on drums, without a bass, presented the record Waterloo at the Count Basie Jazz Club in Genoa on November 8, 2025.

In February 2014 he also published a novel, Complice lo specchio (Mondadori), set in Sicily.

Marangolo plays tenor and soprano saxophone and also piano, and on his own records he often writes the material himself. The records are small-label productions in the lyrical, melodic vein of contemporary Italian jazz: a quartet without bass on Waterloo, a post-bop front line on Le Mal d'Afrique, tango on Desde el alma, Sicilian folk song on Bella Maria, and percussion-led trios on Kalungumachine and the Marangolo Sirkus Trio. The profile is a split one and should be read that way. Most of his recorded credits across five decades are as a saxophonist in Italian song, for Paolo Conte, Francesco Guccini and others, and Italian Wikipedia files him under light music. The jazz side is real and documented, with at least eight records under his own or a co-leader name from 1988 to 2020 that Discogs tags as jazz, but it is documented mostly by Discogs and by concert listings rather than by critical reviews.