Joshua Gouzy

A New Orleans native, Joshua Gouzy was born into a musical family. They’ve been making music in the city for four generations. Since his early youth, Joshua has been playing a variety of instruments. At age 11 his grandfather Lloyd Florane, also a talented multi-instrumentalist, helped him pick out his first bass from the Chalmette pawn shop, and from then on the bass was his primary instrument. He is a graduate of Loyola University with a degree in Music Education and a minor in Jazz Studies. He also has a Masters in Music from the University of New Orleans. He performs in more than nine New Orleans-based jazz bands and runs his own booking agency, Magnolia Entertainment. Joshua has made it his life’s mission to perpetuate and celebrate New Orleans’ music and to carry on his family’s musical legacy. “Every time I play I think about what my great-grandmother would say to me when I was a little kid. We would go visit her in the lower 9th ward, next door to the Doullut steamboat houses on the levee. I’d be playing Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” or something like that on the piano and she’d say, ‘oh, that’s great mah dawlin’, but ya gotta swing it!’. Then she’d go to the piano and play “Just A Closer Walk with Thee” and she’d swing it and sing with her heavy vibrato. That just really stuck with me.”

Awards

New Orleans Jazz Vipers: Jazz Ascona MyChoice Award (Switzerland, 2016) Critics of the International Press (Switzerland, 2016)

Tags