An Our American Stories Listener Remembers His Jazz-Playing Father
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, before jazz became a subject for textbooks and framed posters, it lived in families like the Gozzards. Harry Gozzard never worked the factory lines that defined Detroit. His world unfolded late at night, horn in hand, moving from club to club as the big band era held on. His son, Georges, traces those memories across cities and seasons and remembers what it felt like to watch a parent step into a spotlight that few families ever saw.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:13.3 | And we return to our American stories. |
| 0:16.9 | Harry Gazzard was an American jazz trumpeter who played from the 1930s all the way to 1980. |
| 0:23.6 | Today we're going to hear from his son George, sharing some memories he holds about his father's time in the big band lifestyle. |
| 0:32.6 | I grew up in Warren, Michigan, a blue-collar city just north of Detroit. |
| 0:39.7 | It's the automobile capital of the world. |
| 0:45.7 | At one time, Warren had more factories than any other city in the entire country. |
| 0:51.0 | Except for my dad, it seemed as if every kid that I knew when I was growing up had a dad who worked on the assembly line for one of the big three car companies. |
| 0:56.0 | Even though my dad didn't directly work for GM, Ford or Chrysler, he did help its workers |
| 1:01.0 | relaxed during their time off with his unusual and playful profession that he sometimes referred to as work. |
| 1:19.6 | Harry Gossard was a big band musician and a very good one at that. |
| 1:30.3 | My dad truly enjoyed soothing the ears off of the residents of Metro Detroit with his hot lips and cool trumpet. From what I understand, he was one of the best trumpet players in the country. Harry Gossard was born on a farm in |
| 1:37.8 | Shelburne, Ontario, Canada. In 1924, at eight years of age, he, his parents, and three siblings migrated to Detroit. |
| 1:47.0 | He dropped out of high school when he was just a teenager and began traveling around the country tooting his trumpet. |
| 1:54.0 | I'm not certain, but I think it was the Sam Donoghue Orchestra who asked my dad to drop out of school and join their band. |
| 2:02.5 | For all I know, my grandparents were diametrically opposed to him doing so. Nevertheless, |
| 2:08.6 | he did it anyway. He was one of the fortunate few musicians who was able to record a few |
| 2:16.6 | record albums during his musical career. My dad's fame, if you will, |
| 2:21.5 | was even noticed by some people who I never thought of as being a fan of his. I still remember when |
| 2:27.0 | my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Mitchell, came up to me during class one day and told me how much |
| 2:33.1 | she enjoyed watching and listening to my |
... |
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