Chuck Mangione, who lost 2 band members in NY plane crash, performs for victims’ families

Mangione plays for NY air crash victims’ families

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jazz musician Chuck Mangione has performed in upstate New York at a concert rescheduled after two of his band members died in a plane crash there in February. Other victims’ relatives attended.

Sax player Gerard Niewood and guitarist Coleman Mellett were among 50 people killed when Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed onto a house in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence on Feb. 12. They and Mangione had been scheduled to play in Buffalo the next evening.

The concert with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra was rescheduled for Friday.

Mangione didn’t mention the crash during the show’s first half. He was expected to attend a post-concert fundraising party with victims’ relatives and residents of the street where the plane crashed. Proceeds will go to a memorial fund.

Mellett was from East Brunswick, N.J.; Niewood was from Glen Ridge, N.J.