Collaboration opens new sonic horizons for jazz guitarist Jocelyn Gould
The Winnipeg-based artist looks forward to onstage exchanges with diverse musical peers on International Guitar Night
Jocelyn Gould
Massey Theatre presents International Guitar Night 2026 on February 1 at 7:30 pm
JOCELYN GOULD IS running late, but she’s got good reason for that. She’s been in the recording studio, she notes, and lost track of time. “I was thinking about our interview,” she explains. “I had it on my mind—and then it just left my mind.”
Gould laughs, and adds: “I’m just finishing up my new album, so I was in there working on that.”
No worries; we’ve all been there, in one way or another. But it’s not until three days later that we find out just how easy it must have been for the Winnipeg-based guitarist to get caught up in the moment. In a video posted to her Facebook page, Gould previews a track from the new record, and it’s burning, some of the most passionate and committed playing she’s yet put on wax. Backed by organist Ben Paterson and drummer Fabio Ragnelli, she’s seen paying homage to the classic organ trio sound of the 1960s: think Jimmy Smith with guitarist Kenny Burrell, or Big John Patton with his six-string pal Grant Green. Sure, the clip’s only 23 seconds long, but it certainly whets the appetite for Gould’s next, and as-yet-untitled, LP.
It’s also a fine teaser for Gould’s next Lower Mainland concert appearance, although when she plays Massey Theatre on February 1, she’ll be doing something completely different: playing solo guitar, and singing, and then jamming in a variety of configurations with fellow plectrists Itamar Erez, Caroline Planté, and Jamie Dupuis. Gould’s West Coast tour with the Canadian edition of International Guitar Night is a timely way of demonstrating her stylistic range, especially as it comes on the heels of her most recent release, Solo.
Which, as one might expect, finds her not in the company of her usual quartet or mining organ-trio gold, but all by herself, with just one archtop guitar, her voice, and a folder full of self-penned songs. With very few exceptions, solo performance is not a conventional jazz-guitar format. But Gould’s approach, she notes, can be traced back to her first International Guitar Night tour, in 2023, and even beyond that to her earliest days as a musician.
“I grew up just playing and singing,” Gould explains. “I learned the guitar to accompany myself singing in my bedroom as a teenager, just because I loved to. It was just for myself. And I kind of just wanted to get back to basics to honour that period of my life, I suppose. One guitar player that I love is Joe Pass; I love all the duos that he did with vocalists, and I just felt compelled to try and record some things like that. Which was a huge challenge, as it turned out! It took a lot of preparation to write the songs, or figure out how I wanted to play the songs, and it was very exposing. Anything and everything is just out there for the listener. You’re not hiding behind anything.”
Perhaps it’s that openness that won the 39-year-old musician an especially warm response during her earlier International Guitar Night appearances. “There’s something about solo guitar and voice that just really resonates with people,” she says. “So it was in 2023 that I decided I should really do a full record like this—and it is kind of serendipitous that it came out just a few months before this tour, so I’ll be able to take it with me.”
She’ll be able to stretch in other ways during the February 1 concert, too. Part of the International Guitar Night concept is that its featured performers get to interact with all of the other performers: there will be duos and trios and quartets alongside four solo sets. Gould is audibly thrilled about getting to collaborate with Vancouver-based Erez, whose music blends jazz, Latin, and Middle Eastern elements; Montreal’s Planté, a leading light in flamenco nuevo; and the Ontario-born Dupuis, a specialist in the harp guitar, which allows its practitioners an almost orchestral range.
“I’ve spent so much time in the jazz world that it’s so exciting for me to step in these different directions,” Gould says of the IGN experience. “Having the guitar being the common connector between the four of us, rather than jazz being the common connector, will let us to come up with a lot of sounds that I don’t think you’d be able to hear otherwise.
“You can see each of us just kind of bringing our expertise from our field to the stage, and our collaborations will be very cool,” she continues, adding that the four players are already enjoying some online meet-ups, and will have several days of in-the-flesh rehearsal before the start of their tour. “I’m going to be doing a fair bit of singing as well, just because it’s fun to bring that to the show,” she adds, saying that her solo set will involve “a combination of original music and some jazz standards—some music that you all might recognize, and some brand new stuff.”
So there is a multitude of reasons to head out to New Westminster for International Guitar Night; in the past, the shows have always been entertaining and—for guitarists, at least—inspirational. Just don’t be late!
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