The Chuck Mangione Quintet rehearsing at Mangione's home in 1960 - Note the Dizzy Gillespie designed trumpet. Left to right: Chuck Mangione, trumpet; Larry Combs, alto saxophone; Paul Tardif, piano; Dick Samson, Bass; Noal Cohen, drums.

The extremely gifted and versatile Larry Combs is prinicipal clarinetist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the unique Chicago jazz ensemble known as Ears. On March 5, 1999, Combs appeared in New York with the American Saxophone Quartet to premier Mike Holober's Views From a Train. He can be heard on the recently reissued Riverside album, The Jazz Brothers, with Chuck and Gap Mangione, recorded in 1960. Paul Tardif has been a member of the East Carolina University music faculty for many years as well as a free lance performer and accompanist, frequently working in the Washington, DC area. His 1995 CD, Points of Departure, on the Koch label, is definitely worth checking out.