Jocelyn Gould: Golden Hour
Jocelyn Gould Music

As a guitarist, composer, and singer, Jocelyn Gould is something of a triple threat—quadruple, if you also factor in the fine arrangements she crafted for her sophomore album Golden Hour. While the Canadian jazz artist joins Leni Stern, Ava Mendoza, Mary Halvorson, and others in a small but select club of female guitarists, Gould isn't an iconoclast redefining contemporary guitar practice like Halvorson; that doesn't make her playing any less appealing, however, or deserving of attention. Think of her as a modern-day Emily Remler who's absorbed jazz guitar tradition and is committed to carrying it on. That two of the album tracks pay respective homage to Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass says much about the sensibility in play.

Gould's joined on her follow-up to 2021's Juno-winning debut Elegant Traveler by pianist Will Bonness (himself a 2022 Juno winner for Change of Plans), bassist Rodney Whitaker, drummer Quincy Davis (the sole holdover from her debut), and, on three of the ten tracks, saxophonist Jon Gordon. Gould's smartly surrounded herself with highly regarded Canadian and American jazz players who're established bandleaders in their own right. Doing so brings out the best in her, naturally, and the performances by all benefit from their shared acquaintanceship.

Gould attracted deserved attention for her guitar work on Elegant Traveler and now adds her voice to the sequel. That too was a smart move as it adds an extra level of personality to the material and by including her singing on three songs only a nice balance between instrumental and vocal performances is achieved. As a guitarist, she's got chops aplenty but doesn't showboat; when she does step out, the moment's special for revealing deft execution, sterling command, and expressiveness.

As the six originals show, she's a polished composer too, plus circumspect in her choice of covers. Four American songbook standards appear, all familiar but given fresh updates by Gould, and the album offers an appealing mix of ballad, swing, and blues treatments. The midtempo title track ushers in the set like a warm breeze, with Gould's refined phrasing buoyed by a swinging foundation and Bonness stepping up with a characteristically enticing solo. Nine tracks later, “Bright Note” takes us out on a bluesy and boppish note with effervescent solos from all five helping to make the exit a joyous one.

On the tracks featuring singing, Gould elevates the dreamy ballad “Horizons” with a lustrous vocal, her soft voice and sensitive delivery well-suited to the character of the material. When she pairs wordless vocalizing with Gordon's singing saxophone on the swinging samba “Serendipity,” the music feels all the more radiant. Her voice is even more fragile for a wistful duet take on “A Cottage for Sale” that pairs her voice and guitar with Bonness's elegant piano.

Elsewhere on the covers front, Gould, drawing for inspiration from Pass, delivers an assured solo rendition of “Sweet Lorraine”; “Lover Come Back to Me” likewise opens with unaccompanied guitar but soon enough blazes an uptempo quartet trail, and her Montgomery homage “Willow Weep for Me” captures the quartet luxuriating in relaxed, blues-soaked mode.

July 2022