Lenny Hambro - Jazz Legacy

Jazz Legacy

Lenny Hambro was active as a performing and recording jazz musician for over 50 years. Although of Dutch Jewish extraction, Hambro was as comfortable with an Afro-Cuban jazz orchestra as he was with a Swing era dance band, or a Dixieland Jazz band. He was steadily in demand as a stage and session musician during the 1950s New York-based Mambo dance craze. A review of the musicians on Machito's 1958 album for Tico, Mi Amigo, Machito, reveals a host of Latinos - José Mangual Sr., Uba Nieto, Johnny "La Vaca" Rodríguez Sr., Mario Bauzá, José "Pin" Madera, Ray Santos - and Lenny Hambro. A Metronome article from 1955 referred to Hambro as the "Latin from Manhattan", and Hambro traveled to Cuba several times during this period to perfect his art. Yet, he spent eight subsequent years playing the disciplined, sophisticated swing of The New Glenn Miller Orchestra. Further, he was routinely drafted to fill missing chairs for both Duke Ellington's and Count Basie's orchestras, often the only caucasian face on stage.

Hambro was a member of the American Federation of Musicians of Atlantic City, Local No. 708; Musicians Local No. 802 in New York City; the Screen Actors Guild; the American Federation of Recording Artists; and the National Academy of Recording Artists. He worked on more than 80 recording sessions and appears as either a leader or sideman on nearly 100 LPs/CDs released in the U.S. Due to a resurgence of interest in period Swing, Bebop, and Latin jazz, recordings of Hambro's efforts as a sideman continue to be promulgated, with nearly 40 retrospective albums featuring his efforts released since his death. Additionally, both Lenny Hambro Quintet albums were re-released as compact discs in 2002 (Collectables).

As a composer, Hambro is best known for "The Lonely One", written with Roberta Heller (then a 21-year-old lyricist for music publisher Ivan Mogull,) which Nat King Cole recorded for Capitol in 1956. It has been covered over the years by a variety of artists, including Marianne Solivan, Sil Austin, Kitty Kallen, Kelly Friesen, Lisa Ekdahl, Mark Doyle, the Robin Nolan Trio, the Music Rama Band, and by several Finnish bands, where it was a minor hit as "Tuo Onneton" (with Finnish Lyrics by Kari Tuomisaari). On the Latin side, Hambro wrote "Mamboscope" for Machito, an instrumental that has been widely licensed for Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz compilation albums.

One of Hambro's greatest accolades came from famed clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman, who, when introduced to him by pianist Leonid Hambro (no relation), said of Hambro: "No need, I know who he is; he's the only man that makes me feel self-conscious when I play."