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Joshua Gouzy

Joshua is a New Orleans-native upright and electric bassist

About Me

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 Bachelor's in Music Education and a minor in Jazz Studies. He also has a Master's in Music from the University of New Orleans. He is the regular bassist in nine New Orleans-based jazz bands and is the proprietor of 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.”