Lenny Hambro may have been one of the musicians Charles Mingus had in mind when he wrote a song entitled If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There Would Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats. Then again, the Hambro sandwich actually tastes pretty good, once given a less biased chew. In a kinder, gentler appraisal, the Gunslinging Bird is acknowledged as a major influence, not only on Hambro but a lot of other people as well, a musical home-ground but not something stuffed in a canvas bag during a burglary.

Hambro seems to have a moment of glory during the second half of the '50s, when his own quintet was able to release a series of LPs, as well as tour Europe in both 1957 and 1958. The fine guitarist Dick Garcia was part of Hambro's lineup, as well as pianist Wade Legge, Clyde Lombardi on bass, and Mel Zelnick tending to the drum set. Message from Hambro and The Nature of Things were among the epistles from Hambro quintets, both eventually reissued on CD. Otherwise, this woodwind player -- whose axes include alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, and flute -- made do with a series of big-band jobs, espousing an allegiance to the Gunslinging Bird but playing lots of music stylistically preceding bebop. Before and after the Second World War, Hambro enjoyed his first major job with drummer Gene Krupa. In the postwar period he simultaneously held down chairs in other bands such as the Latin jazz outfits of Vincent Lopez and Pupi Campo.

In the early '50s Hambro played in and eventually began managing the Ray McKinley band, continuing the Latin connection on a Machito Orchestra tour. The latter collaboration worked out well, Hambro featured as a lead alto soloist intermittently through 1956, when he jumped over to a version of the Glenn Miller Orchestra led by former boss McKinley. Hambro also did some teaching and played on studio sessions by rhythm & blues performers such as the Spinners and Cissy Houston. Hambro's final recording date was Chico O'Farrill's comeback album on Milestone, the 1995 Pure Emotion. Significant use was made of a distinctive surname in original compositions including Mambo Hambro and Ham Nose. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi