Harry Gold (musician)

Harry Gold (26 February 1907 – 13 November 2005), born Hyman Goldberg, was an English British Dixieland jazz saxophonist and bandleader.

[1][2][3] The eldest of six children, born to a Romanian mother, Hetty Schulman, and a Polish father, Sam Goldberg,[4] Gold's career spanned almost the whole history of jazz in Britain in the 20th century.

After the war, thanks to radio broadcasts, records and incessant touring, Harry Gold and his Pieces of Eight became household names in Britain through the late 1940s and 1950s.

[6] In December of the same year, the band recorded for the first time and from July 1946, they began regularly appearing on the BBC's “Music While You Work” radio show.

[8] Eventually, however, tired of touring, Gold handed over the band to his brother Laurie on New Year's Eve 1955 and opted for a quieter life as a composer-arranger, working for music publishers and later for the EMI organisation.

An elderly, grey-haired man sits in front of a wall covered with framed photographs and posters, and plays a floor-mounted contrabass saxophone.
Gold aged 89, demonstrating the contrabass saxophone in the 100 Club , London, 1996