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Like most musicians, saxophonist/flutist Gerry Niewood has had several musical fathers, metaphorically speaking. Primary among them are trumpeter/f lugelhorn player Chuck Mangione and saxophone masters Phil Woods and Sonny Stitt. he played with Mangione from 1968-1976 and again from 1994 to the present.
Niewood was 16 and living in his native Rochester, New York, when he first met and played with Stitt, whose work on alto closely mirrored Charlie Parker's.
"My friend's father invited him to lunch and took me along," says Niewood, 60, who started on alto saxophone at age 8 and was playing weddings and Bar Mitzvahs three years later. "He was a nice man, generous with his knowledge, encouraging. That night I played with him. Sonny [tested me when he] called 'Cherokee' in B [rather than the usual, much-easier key of C] and I knew it."
Two years later, Niewood again ran into Stitt, who was by then one of his major influences. Once more, they performed together. "We had a nice hook-up," remembers Niewood, who now lives in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and whose latest CD, Facets (Native Language), came out in late March. "After we came off the stage, he said, I hear you playing my shit. But that's OK if you do it from here,' and he pointed to my heart."
Music of the heart describes the bebopand-beyond affiliation between Niewood and Mangione, another Rochester native famed for such best-selling albums as Feels So Good and Chase the Clouds Away (both A&M Records and both featuring Niewood).
Acquaintances since grade school, the pair bonded musically during a 2 1/2 year, six-night-a-week gig, from 1968-71 at a Rochester room called The Shakespeare. Then, during the early '703, came Mangione's first hit, "Land of Make Believe," followed by others. The trumpeter became a star, and, for a while, so did Eastman School of Music grad...