Lynne Milgram is a long-time jazz music fan, a JAZZ.FM91 volunteer, and Professor Emerit at OCAD University.
JUNO Award-winning guitarist and composer Jocelyn Gould has released her new pioneering album, So Delighted, out now via LaReserve Records. Honouring the organ trio tradition, the album features Gould’s solid long-time trio members, Ben Paterson on organ and Fabio Ragnelli on drums while welcoming guest appearances by Christine Jensen on saxophone, Jon Challoner on trumpet, and Americana-style guitarist Joey Landreth. By positioning five original compositions alongside five standard tunes, So Delighted not only pays tribute to the earlier organ trio lineage of guitarists such as Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell but also enables Gould to realize new artistic expressions that can bring listeners together across generations.
For the past decade, Gould’s technical facility and melodic finesse has been garnering international momentum and critical praise as she develops ever-complex musical narratives both in live performances and in studio recordings. One only needs to listen to Gould’s music to picture her fingers flying across her instrument’s strings to yield the most precise but also poignantly meaningful tunes. Like the intent of the guitar masters who have inspired her practice, Gould wants her music to tell a story. To this end, Gould, the composer, creates personal responses to past and current events that have affected her daily life. As Gould explains about So Delighted: “For this record, I wanted something cheerful, I suppose — something that would make people feel good…I think we kind of need that these days.”
Gould has reinforced the uplifting resolve of the album’s narrative by inviting guest artists whose work she respects and with whom she has always wanted to collaborate. She outlines that each of the album’s participating guest artists – Jensen, Challoner, and Landreth – have motivated her to push her own work in different directions. “I’ve always wanted to collaborate with Christine…[and] Joey is another one… as he has introduced me to new guitar communities. And Jon is just a wonderful trumpet player.”
The decisive tone of So Delighted is established from the outset with the first track, “Cakewalk” by Oscar Peterson – a song that also offers a nod to jazz music history. This “super swinging” tune, as Gould explains, allows her to express her lyrical mastery over multiple choruses while Paterson on the organ delivers a bouncing bebop-infused solo ahead of the back-to-back improvised short solo conversations among the drums and other musicians. “He [Oscar] must have had a sense of humour because he called this tune, “Cakewalk”, but it’s really hard,” says Gould.
“June Moon” which Gould wrote with Christine Jensen in mind transmits another side of Gould’s composing. A lamenting saxophone introduces the haunting mood before the song moves through different emotional resonances. Closing out the album, “Grin Seeker” and “The Game Changer” showcase unexpected effects across instrumentalist sections. On the former, Landreth on guitar manipulates chords with a wah-wah pedal to reference a slide sound without actually using one. On revisiting the “The Game Changer”, a track that first appeared on her 2020 release Elegant Traveler, Gould imparts new innovative interventions. This includes featuring an introduction highlighting the “Americana roots tradition” – a contemporary blend of country, folk, bluegrass, blues, R&B, and roots-rock music forms into a cohesive, story-driven sound – a goal in line with Gould’s narrative leanings. As Gould outlines, “I had Joey and I had an organ so I thought, it’s time to do a second pass at this tune.”
So Delighted reflects a joyful, communal spirit and arrives at a high point in Gould’s fast-rising career.
For Gould the album represents both a light-hearted gesture and a meaningful moment in her career as she navigates where she wants to position herself in jazz history’s trajectory.
