“With productions that sound as if they belong to a film soundtrack, Texas’ Joy Guidry is crafting elegant and joyous music that sits somewhere at the intersection of ambient, jazz, and experimental.”
Mixmag
“Joy Guidry’s music is an evocation of prayer … [that] sits at the nexus between Black classical music, modern European traditions, alt soul, jazz, and beyond.”
CLASH MAGAZINE
“Joy Guidry’s work has a cathartic power to it that condenses into heavy, affecting passages that spill into the air from every direction.”
Foxy Digitalis
Joy Guidry is a bassoonist, versatile improviser, performance artist, and composer of experimental, daring new works that embody a deep love of storytelling; Joy’s music channels her inner child in honor of her ancestors and predecessors. Joy was born in Houston, Texas, into a creative family that has shaped who she is today.
Joy is the founder of Jaid Records, which is a record label that focuses on experimental ambient music, free jazz. Jaid Records was founded in October of 2024, and currently has released her third album Titled Five Prayers.
Joy has presented her original work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, Kraftwerk, Whitney Museum for American Art, Hauser & Wirth, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Cafe Oto, The Kitchen, Redcat, among many other venues. She has been commissioned by The National Sawdust, JACK Quartet, Gaudeamus Festival, and the I&I Foundation. Joy has been featured in festivals like Berlin Atonal, La Biennale di Venezia, London jazz Festival, Banlieues Bleues festival, A'Larme Festival, Cologne Jazz Week, Dripping Festival, Big Ears Festival, and many more. Joy Guidry is the winner of the 2021 Berlin Prize for Young Artists. She is currently playing on a Heckel Bassoon number 6101.
Performance Experience
London Jazz Festival
Berlin Atonal
BRDCST Festival
Dripping Festival
Big Ears Festival
ÜBER Jazz Festival
XJazz Festival
Moers Festival
A'Larme Festival
Cologne Jazz Week
Banlieues Bleues festival
Spoleto Festival USA
Festivals
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Hauser & Wirth
Whitney Museum of American Art
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Union Chapel
Palazzo Te
The Kitchen
Notable Venues
Bilal
Shabaka Hutchens
ps goner (Peter Sagar from homeshake)
Duendita
Have Opened for
Discography
Five Prayers (2025)
“Following her sophomore album Amen, which fused Negro spiritual idioms with free jazz to explore her Southern Creole roots and religious upbringing, Joy Guidry returns with Five Prayers—a meditative foray into ambient music that solidifies her place as one of the most innovative voices in experimental sound.”
— Chelsea Marcelle Daniel, Vogue Magazine
Amen (2024)
Amen is the sound of Texas-raised, NYC-based bassoonist Joy Guidry returning to her Southern roots. Created with an ensemble of musician friends and singers, including fellow southerner Niecy Blues, on Amen, Guidry creates a healing balm for herself and her community by mixing gospel with spiritual jazz and ambient music. The album opens with a “Psalm,’ setting Guidry’s plaintive bassoon on top of a resonant hum not unlike the organ swells of Alice Coltrane. From there, we move through the meditative ambiance of “It’s Okay to Let Me Go” to the soaring gospel of “Angels,” and finally to the album’s pinnacle: A spine-tingling transcendent version of Max Roach’s “Members Don’t Get Weary.” The end result is a beacon of resistance that’s raw, true, and all-powerful.
- Andy Thomas, Bandcamp
Radical Acceptance (2022)
“Whether this is still free jazz, already contemporary music or even sound performance does not matter. Radical Acceptance is one of the strongest statements that free music has made recently.”
-Andrian Kreye, Süddeutsche zeitung
Bassoon player and sound collagist Joy Guidry learned about the concept of radical acceptance—where one honors their whole self, imperfections and all—in therapy, where they also began to process some of their questions about body image, queer community, mental health, and gender identity. On February’s Radical Acceptance, the interdisciplinary artist pulls together spoken-word pieces with quivering electronic soundscapes, freeform woodwind blasts, and rich rhythmic spirals. It’s an intense, vulnerable work that demands equally thoughtful attention and engagement.
–Allison Hussey, Pitchfork
Performance Examples
Contact
For EU,UK,ASIA bookings please contact: Pascal@outer-agency.com
For NA/SA bookings please contact: Joy@jaidrecords.com