Gerard Joseph Nevidosky, who performed as Gerry Niewood, was born April 6, 1943, in Rochester, New York, and graduated from the Eastman School of Music. He began playing saxophone at eight and was soon working in local jazz bands, including a ten-piece group with future bandleader Chuck Mangione while both were students at Franklin High School. Niewood worked with Mangione's band from 1968 to 1976, appearing on Bellavia and other defining recordings of the group's 1970s output. Mangione's own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile. Niewood was a genuine multi-instrumentalist, credited on soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones as well as flute, alto flute, bass flute, piccolo, and clarinet.

Outside the Mangione band, Niewood spent most of his career as an in-demand session musician, most famously heard on Simon & Garfunkel's The Concert in Central Park (1982). After leaving Mangione's touring group in 1976, he briefly led a band with vibraphonist Dave Samuels.

On February 12, 2009, Niewood and guitarist Coleman Mellett were flying to Buffalo to rejoin Chuck Mangione's band for a scheduled performance when their aircraft, Colgan Air Flight 3407, crashed, killing everyone aboard. He was 65.

Niewood's versatility across the full saxophone and woodwind family made him a valued session player well beyond the jazz-fusion context of Mangione's band, a career built as much on studio reliability as on his own improvisational voice.