Leonard William Hambro, known as Lenny Hambro (October 16, 1923 – September 26, 1995), was a journeyman jazz musician who played woodwinds, primarily alto saxophone, with a host of bands, orchestras, and jazz notables from the early 1940s through the mid-1960s, and continued as a session musician, music producer, booking agent, and entertainment coordinator through the mid-1990s. Early in his professional career, Hambro spelled his name "Lennie" but changed it to the former spelling in 1954, although he was occasionally referred to as "Lennie" in the press as late as 1957. Hambro broke into the profession with Gene Krupa in 1942. However, he is best known for his time as manager and assistant band leader with the New Glenn Miller Orchestra under the direction of Ray McKinley. He was well known in the Latin Jazz community and was closely associated with Chico O'Farrill.
Of Dutch Jewish heritage and the son of a diamond setter, Hambro was born in the Bronx in October 1923 and lived in, or in the vicinity of New York City for the majority of his life. He married singer Lynn Michels of Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1960, and together they raised two boys, Lee and Larry. Hambro died of a blood clot following open-heart surgery in September 1995, at Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. During his lifetime, he worked over 80 recording sessions and appears as either a leader or sideman on nearly 100 LPs / CDs released in the U.S, as well as numerous foreign titles.
Early life and education Lenny Hambro was born on October 16, 1923 to Harry and Rose (née Levine) Hambro in the Bronx, New York, the younger of two children.1930 US Federal Census Lenny lived with his parents and older sister, Adelaide, in an apartment at 984 Sheridan Avenue – just a few blocks northeast of old Yankee Stadium, which was completed the year of his birth. His father worked as a diamond polisher and setter. His mother, who played ragtime piano in the home, died of breast cancer when Hambro was just 12.Segal (Hambro), Adelaide. Interview, November 29, 2007. Hambro graduated from James Monroe High School (later Bronx Little School) in the Soundview section of the Bronx in 1941 (where Stan Getz would begin as a reluctant, periodic student just a year later).Martin, Justin (2000). The Man Behind Money. Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Publishing. After his father's death from pneumonia when Lenny was 28, Hambro largely lived "out of a suitcase", but, when in New York, stayed with older sister, Adelaide, and her husband, Harold, in the Bronx, until his marriage in 1960.
As a teenager, Hambro pestered his father for a trumpet, but it was his brother-in-law, Harold Segal (older sister Adelaide's husband), who introduced 15-year-old Hambro to woodwinds, giving him a soprano saxophone and introductory music lessons. (Harold Segal played both the tenor saxophone and clarinet semi-professionally with an Irish band for a time.) By all accounts, Hambro quickly eclipsed his brother-in-law, taking every music class in which he could enroll. As a high school student, Hambro took private lessons from Bill Sheiner, one of the leading music teachers and session musicians in New York City. Sheiner taught in a studio behind the Bronx Musical Mart at 174th Street and Southern Boulevard, between Lenny's school and home. (Stan Getz and future chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, were fellow students of Sheiner.) Sheiner played multiple instruments – clarinet, saxophone, flute, and oboe – and most of his students were trying to simultaneously learn two similar instruments. Sheiner employed two books that are still standard texts: The Universal Complete Saxophone Method, and Klosé Complete Clarinet Method.
During this period, Sheiner, who had worked in Shep Fields' all-saxophone band, decided to build his own all-sax band with eight of his students. With Sheiner as frontman, and a drummer, pianist, and bassist, the band included both Lenny and Stan Getz as well as Sol Schlinger, Irving Frank, Red Press, Jerry Grosser, Stan Yuden and Alan Kimmel. The band worked up some arrangements and auditioned for Maria Kramer, who owned both the Lincoln and Edison hotels (both featured dance bands) but the WWII draft intervened and the band quickly disbanded.Wasserman, Herb (2000). A Different Drummer: What Makes Me Tic, A Memoir. Lincoln, Nebraska: Writers Club Press, iUniverse.com, Inc. During his later high-school years, Hambro played alto sax, tenor sax, clarinet, and flute in an assortment of teen dance bands, including a summer in the Catskills, playing occasional gigs in the evenings, while working as a lifeguard during the day at a resort hotel pool. (Years later, Hambro would return to the Catskills, playing with Machito's Orchestra at the Concord Resort Hotel, and during another summer, had his own quintet in the lounge.)Igoe (Hambro), Barbara. Responses to: Abandoned Hotels of the Catskills Borscht Belt. September 27, 2010. Accessed July 7, 2012
Career 1942–1954 During World War II, many professional musicians enlisted and served in military bands. As a result, there were occasional openings in established commercial bands. At just 18 years of age, Hambro auditioned for an empty seat in Gene Krupa's band. His audition included playing "American Bolero", a piece written in 5/4 time, a complex meter that was quite progressive in Western music at the time.Korall, Burt (2002). Drummin' Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz: The Swing Years. New York: Oxford University Press. Although initially skeptical, Krupa and trumpeter Roy Eldridge were impressed and called Hambro at home the next day to tell him that he had secured the job and to schedule him for a tuxedo fitting. On October 28, 1942, two weeks after his 19th birthday, Hambro was on stage with the Gene Krupa Band at the Times Square Paramount Theater. However, he left the band in December of that year for the Army and joined Ivan Mogul, Shorty Rogers and approximately 40 other musicians from the Bronx who had agreed to man the 379th Army Service Forces (ASF) Band in Newport News, Virginia, where he stayed for three years.Arkin, Herb. Arkin/Hambro Genealogy Home Page. April 20, 2005. From 1946 to 1947, Hambro was a featured soloist with Billy Butterfield and his orchestra; recording with him in 1946. In 1947, he played with Bobby Byrne before rejoining Gene Krupa as lead alto sax and featured jazz soloist through 1950. (Hambro, along with tenor saxophonist Buddy Wise and trombonist Frank Rosolino, is featured in a 15-minute film short, Deep Purple, directed by Will Cowan in 1949, which focused on Gene Krupa and His Orchestra.)Klauber, Bruce H. (1990). World of Gene Krupa: That Legendary Drummin' Man. Ventura, California: Pathfinder Publishing. In addition to playing with Krupa, Hambro simultaneously played in other bands, including the Latin jazz ensembles of Vincent Lopez and Pupi Campo. In 1948, Hambro toured with Machito and his Afro-Cuban Orchestra where he was featured as a soloist on alto sax. From 1951 to 1952, Hambro played with and managed the Ray McKinley Band. From 1951 to 1954, he also played and recorded with Chico O'Farrill's orchestra, with a year off (1952) to tour with The Gene Krupa Orchestra. From 1948 until 1954, he recorded with all of these artists and both Charlie Ventura's orchestra and Joe Loco's band, as well as Earl Williams, Sauter-Finegan, George Williams, and Red Norvo. During this period (1951–1956), Hambro also accompanied vocalists at the Paramount Theater, did studio work, worked as a music copyist,Craig's Big Bands & Big Names.Com Interview with Hal Turner. 2002 Accessed August 21, 1998. and taught private lessons. He continued to hone his own skills by studying clarinet with Leon Russianoff and flute with Henry Zlotnick, both of the Manhattan School of Music.Feather, Leonard & Gitler, Ira (1999). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.
The Lenny Hambro Quintet In 1953, Lenny formed a quintet, recording four tunes in September with Machito's rhythm section; and four more tunes in April 1954 – that together formed the foundation of his first albums, both released by Savoy. Over the next two years, the members of the quintet alternately included Wade Legge, Rene Hernandez, Eddie Costa, or Hank Jones on piano; Dick Garcia, Sal Salvador, or Barry Galbraith on guitar; Louis Barretto, Clyde Lombardi or Arnold Fishkind on bass; Eddie Bert on trombone; Mel Zelnick, Harold Granowsky, Gus Johnson Jr., or Sid Bulkin on drums; Jose Mangual, Ubaldo Nieto, and Ray "Mongo" Santamaria on Bongos/Congas; and Babs Gonzales' vocals. As a quartet, quintet, or sextet, a Lenny Hambro-led and named ensemble would continue as a group through 1964. Hambro's first two albums, both released in 1954, were largely ignored by both the public and the music industry. His later albums (released in 1955 and 1956 by Epic) received mediocre reviews. Gramophone criticized Hambro as "a thoroughly competent dance-band musician who obviously believes he is playing jazz,"No byline. "Review: Message from Hambro; Lenny Hambro Quintet". Gramophone, September 1957. Accessed September 5, 2009. and for "blantant copying" of Charlie Parker's phrasing."Review: The Nature of Things; Lenny Hambro Quintet", Gramophone, Mar. 1958. Accessed September 5, 2009. These uncredited reviews directly contrasted with a George T. Simon Metronome review of a Gene Krupa Band engagement at New York City's Bop City in March 1950, where the typically stingy Simon credited the band with "a good sax quintet, thanks in part to Lenny Hambro's lead".Simon, George T. "Review: Gene Krupa at Bop City". Metronome, March 1950. In any case, Hambro would release no further recordings as a bandleader or headliner.
1955–1964 In 1955, Hambro again played in and managed the Ray McKinley Band. In 1956, capitalizing on the popularity of The Glenn Miller Story movie, Willard Alexander 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 arrangements of old Miller favorites including the original music and more contemporary hits, most arranged by Deane Kincaide. The orchestra was very successful, performing on television and traveling the world.McKinley, Gretchen and Neville, Jawn McKinley. Ray McKinley Music and Ephemera Collection, 1945–1994, Biographical Note. The Smithsonian Institution Archives. February 2, 1998 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. The band toured the United States routinely during this period as well as England, Poland, "Iron Curtain" Europe, and North Africa in 1957 and 1958, where they played at U.S. military facilities and Embassies; and Japan twice in the early 1960s. Lenny was with the New Glenn Miller Orchestra for eight years, during which time they played a live 13-week summer replacement show on CBS, co-hosted by McKinley and vocalist Johnny Desmond ("Glenn Miller Time", 1961; broadcast from the Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC; see External links), and the NBC Bandstand on both radio and television, and cut seven albums for RCA Victor. During this period, Lenny lived on 77th Road in Kew Gardens Hills in QueensMichels-Hambro, Lynn. Interview, March 23, 2008. where his friend, composer and pianist Eddie Costa, was a neighbor.Feather, Leonard. Liner notes. The Nature of Things (1956; Epic Records) Lenny Hambro Quintet.
Marriage