Sanford Gold was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 pianist born in Cleveland, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

.

Gold played locally in Cleveland and led regional bands before moving to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in the 1930s. There he collaborated with Babe Russin

Babe Russin

Irving "Babe" Russin was a tenor saxophone player.Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Russin played with some of the best known jazz bands of the 1930s and 1940s, including Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller. He led his own band briefly in the early 1940s...

 and Raymond Scott

Raymond Scott

Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....

 in 1935, and formed a trio with Dave Barbour

Dave Barbour

Dave Barbour was an American musician. He was a jazz banjoist and guitarist, a pop songwriter, an actor, and the husband of Peggy Lee for nine years....

 in 1941. In 1942 he worked as a studio musician for CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 before serving in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 from 1942 to 1946. After his discharge he worked with Don Byas

Don Byas

Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, long-resident in Europe.- Oklahoma and Los Angeles :...

, Mary Osborne

Mary Osborne

Mary Osborne was an American jazz electric guitarist.Osborne was born in Minot, North Dakota. She learned violin as a child and could also play guitar and bass by age 15. She heard Charlie Christian play in Al Trent's band at a stop in Bismarck, North Dakota; Christian became one of her most...

 and others before he went to work for CBS rival NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 from 1949-1954. An album was recorded under his name by Prestige

Prestige Records

Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...

 in 1955 entitled Piano d'Or, and Gold was also a sideman with Johnny Smith

Johnny Smith

Johnny Smith is an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist.-Early years:...

, Al Cohn

Al Cohn

Al Cohn was an American jazz saxophonist and arranger and composer.-Biography:Alvin Gilbert Cohn was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was initially known in the 1940s for playing in Woody Herman's Second Herd as one of the Four Brothers, along with Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Serge Chaloff...

, Vic Dickenson

Vic Dickenson

Vic Dickenson was an African-American jazz trombonist. Dickenson's career started out in the 1920s and led him through musical partnerships with such legends as Count Basie , Sidney Bechet and Earl Hines...

, Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...

 and Sally Blair.
Sanford was one the premier jazz piano teachers of his time. His self published book, "A Modern Approach to Keyboard Harmony and Piano Techniques," distills the complexities of jazz and classical harmony down to a simple yet far reaching system of pianistic and harmonic exercises. It's become an underground classic for serious students of the instrument. One of his biggest fans was Bill Evans, who often steered students his way.

Discography

• Don Byas: Don Byas 1946 (Classics)
• Al Cohn And His Charlie Tavern's Ensemble: East Coast-West Coast Scene (Fresh Sound Rec., 1954)
• Vic Dickenson: Breaks, Blues & Boogie (Topaz, 1941-46)
• Stan Getz: The Complete Roost Recordings (Roost, 1950-54)
• Coleman Hawkins: Body And Soul Revisited (Decca, GRP; 1951-58); The Hawk Talks (Affinity, 1951-52)
• Johnny Smith: Moonlight in Vermont (Fresh Sound, 1952-53),
• Johnny Smith - Stan Getz Quintet: Stan Getz - The Complete 1948-1952 Quintet Sessions (Blue Moon)
• Sally Blair: Squeeze Me (Fresh Sound, 1957)