Chuck Mangione band members killed in plane crash

New York, February 15: Two members of Jazz musician Chuck Mangione's band died in the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407.

Sanford Brokaw, a publicist for the famous jazz musician identified the band members as Gerry Niewood and Coleman Mellett. The flight was bound from Newark Liberty International Airport to Buffalo, where they were supposed to perform alongside the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at the Kleinhans Music Hall.

I'm in shock over the horrible, heartbreaking tragedy of the crash of Flight 3407, which took the lives of my dear friends and band members," Mangione said in a statement today. "I am grieving and praying with their families and friends."

Gerry Niewood, a saxophonist and Coleman Mellett, a guitarist were from Rochester. Leo Rayhill, a local Jazz DJ, who has been watching the Chuck Mangione band perform for years, says, "They formed great jazz in Upstate New York. They were a nucleus."

Mellett was initially a member of Sugarman 3, an association that made him a familiar name in the New York jam and funk circuit. After studying guitar at Duquesne University and William Paterson University in the 1990s, Mellett went on to earn a masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music.

During his career, he got to play with the likes of Joe Williams, Frank Wess, Doug Lawrence, James Spaulding, Etta Jones and Christian McBride. Only in the past few years, he had been playing with Chuck Mangione.

Niewood, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, embarked on a recording and performing schedule with Chuck Mangione and had been doing so for nearly fourteen years.

He had worked with renowned musicians including Peggy Lee, Gil Evans, Sinead O'Connor, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Anne Murray, Mark Murphy, Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra and Gerry Mulligan. Niewood’s adaptability to many music styles, topped with the distinctive voice on saxophone, fetched him wide recognition in the music scene of New York.

Calling the accident a loss to the music world, Rayhill said, "Each one of those musicians are unique. They have their own way of playing. It's such a tragedy."