Two members of flugelhornist Chuck Mangione’s band were among the 50 people killed on the plane that crashed into a Buffalo, New York house Thursday night. Publicist Sanford Brokaw told the Associated Press that flutist Gerry Niewood (pictured) and guitarist Coleman Mellett were aboard, en route to a Mangione gig in Buffalo with the Buffalo Philharmonic that has now been canceled. Niewood recorded and performed with Mangione from 1968-76 and sporadically since the late ’90s, and also recorded with a wide range of artists including Peggy Lee, Patti Austin, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob James, Lalo Schifrin and Grover Washington Jr. Niewood also recorded a number of albums as a leader. Mellett’s recording credits include appearances on albums by the Sugarman Three and Eddie Landsberg. He also released a solo album in 2007 called Natural High. In a statement Mangione, said, “I’m in shock over the horrible, heartbreaking tragedy.”
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes