“I always wanted to be a professional musician,” Jocelyn Gould muses, perched on a stool with her guitar.
“I’ve always written music. Even as a kid I was making up songs. It is an important part of my artistic voice.”
We’re in the makeup room while Duran finishes his set. Gould smiles and explains that she’s based in Winnipeg, but has come to Ottawa’s festival three times, twice as a lead artist.
“One of my best friends lives here,” she said near the end. “The park in the fall was just magical … I’m having a great time here in Ottawa.”
Her show was a fast-paced, rambling take on instrumental jazz classics. Gould’s guitar usually leads the melodies; it often seems like the others are scrambling to keep up with its twists and turns. But of course, the harmony is solid, like a smooth dodge of a kick. The piano man, fellow Winnipegger Will Bonness, showed off in his own solos. The other members of the night’s crew were cellist Adrian Vedady and drummer Jacob Wutzke.
Gould has a shifty, energetic manner while playing, gazing around the room with that huge grin, only to break off and stare at her guitar, even as the playing continues just as elegantly. She favours long pieces, more than five minutes, that visit and revisit the same chord elements in great detail, shifting how the other instruments support and change the guitar’s sound.
Her fourth album, Portrait of Right Now, came out in October 2024. When asked about her goals for the future, Gould’s response was simple.
“Spend my life making music that I feel is fulfilling … I am 100 per cent a musician.”