Leonard William Hambro (1923-1995), known as Lenny Hambro —and occasionally referred to as “Lennie” in the press as late as 1957— was an alto saxophonist, flutist and clarinet player native and resident of New York City for the most part of his life. His favorite record was Ellington’s “Warm Valley”, mainly because of the work of Johnny Hodges. At seventeen he joined Gene Krupa’s band, and stayed with him until he was drafted in 1943, rejoining again after he was discharged, but not before he put in almost a year with the bands of Billy Butterfield and Bobby Byrne, and some Schillinger studies.

In 1951, after a stint with Pupi Campos’ Latin band, he joined Ray McKinley, doubling on all the reeds, and adding road managership to his many talents. Since the band was working out of New York, between 1951-1955, Lennie had the chance to record with many groups (Earl Williams, Chico O’Farrill, Machito, Sauter-Finegan, George Williams, Red Norvo, Charlie Ventura, etc) and record two dates with Savoy Records as a leader. First, he recorded four tunes in a jazz session that took place in September 1954, with Eddie Bert on trombone, and accompanied rhythm section with Hank Jones at the piano, Clyde Lombardi, bass, and Sid Bulkin, on drums, and with bop singer Babs Gonzales featured on two tracks. On a later date he was joined by Machito’s rhythm section. They liked him well enough to recommend him to Machito, which led to a regular job and a “wonderful” relationship between the two which only ended in April 1955, and only because Lennie felt that he must get out and build his own group. “And, it’s not going to be a Latin group.” he said. “I did on those records I made for Savoy. But, I can’t have Machito’s rhythm section on the road, so there’s no sense trying to do it. There isn’t any sense even recording with them anymore, because that isn’t what I’m going to be playing in clubs. So why should I confuse the people that way. So, what I’m using is a quintet.”

On this initial group Lenny picked up, pianist Wade Legge, a 20-year young man who had been playing the 88’s with the Dizzy Gillespie group for the past two years, along with guitarist Joe Puma, bassist Gene Ramey and Ray Alexander on drums and vibes. “With my own group,” he pointed, “ I can play what I want. And that’s what I want to do. That, and to build up some kind of security for myself.”

In this new step in his career, Lenny recorded two quintet albums, both including standards and originals. On the first one for Columbia “Message from Hambro,” he was ably backed by Wade Legge, who showed off his cool jazz stylings, guitarist Dick Garcia, Clyde Lombardi, on bass, and Mel Zelnick, drums. The second one for Columbia’s subsidiary label Epic, “The Nature of Things,” was recorded in two sessions with two different line-up of fine jazzmen, both of them featuring the then emerging Eddie Costa on vibes and piano, playing with fresh, pertinent drive throughout, and with sparkling playing by Hambro and all the band members—Sal Salvador and Barry Galbraith alternating on guitar, Clyde Lombardi or Arnold Fishkin, on bass, Harold Granowsky or Gus Johnson on drums.

From March 1956, the Willard Alexander booking office took a deep plunge into the jazz business, signing Lenny’s quintet and several other jazz groups and singers. Alexander also persuaded the Glenn Miller Estate to sponsor a new Glenn Miller Orchestra (GMO) with McKinley as its leader. Hambro was asked to reorganize the band and he functioned as both manager and assistant leader. The band played the original arrangements note-for-note- of old Miller’s band, including the original music and more contemporary hits, mostly scored by Deane Kincaide. The orchestra was very successful, going on tour, performing on television and travelling the world.

In the spring of 1957, Lenny really got a workout on the Miller-McKinley band touring overseas at the armed forces bases in Germany, France, England, North Africa, and Germany again before moving into the Eastern European countries. The band gave concerts for the State Department, where the magic of Glenn Miller’s music extended behind the Iron Curtain. In addition to being a featured soloist, Hambro and his quintet, formed from other members of the GMO were a featured act with the orchestra. Because of the tremendous response to the Hambro brand of American jazz, the quintet, which had two numbers in the first concert, were playing five by the end of the tour. The last three tracks of this set were recorded in Warsaw, where “the reception was so great,” recalled Hambro, “that we played six concerts in four days. They were sold out weeks before. We just were unable to play an extra concert. Tickets were being scalped for what amounted to a week’s salary… about $6.”

There is little doubt that Hambro was influenced by Charlie Parker, and he was once described as mixing the styles of Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges —Lenny was Duke Ellington’s first choice to sit in with his band as saxophone lead, whenever Hodges was absent.

—Jordi Pujol (From the inside liner notes of FSRCD 857)