Bassoonist Joy Guidry to Release New 5-Track Album “Five Prayers” on May 16th, 2025 | LISTEN!
Bassoonist Joy Guidry to Release New 5-Track Album “Five Prayers”
Joy Guidry returns with Five Prayers, a deeply vulnerable, genre-defying sonic journey that reimagines the act of prayer through sound, movement, and emotion. Due for release on her Label Jaid Records on May 16, the album marks Guidry’s most expansive and intimate work to date—an offering of meditative, ambient, and soul-stirring compositions born from a year of mental health challenges and spiritual rediscovery.
Joy Guidry’s new album, Five Prayers, is an intuitive convergence of sound, spirit, and radical self-expression. As a deeply respected artist in the experimental and avant-garde music spaces, Guidry continues to push sonic boundaries while remaining deeply connected to Black sonic traditions. Moving away from free jazz, Five Prayers shifts toward an ambient space. This album is informed by deep introspection, and the resulting work is a manifestation of self-exploration and liberation, resonating with audiences seeking authenticity, vulnerability, and transcendence in music.
Anchored by Guidry’s signature bassoon—reimagined and electronically manipulated beyond its classical origins—Five Prayers is a genre-bending blend of ambient gospel, experimental jazz, and textured electronic soundscapes. Inspired by the harmonic worlds of Alice Coltrane, Jazmine Sullivan, and Cleo Sol, and visually informed by Lorna Simpson’s Earth & Sky, the album pulses with a quiet intensity, pairing serenity with struggle, grounding with transcendence.
“I began to pray in new ways,” shares Guidry. “These prayers came in the form of sonic meditations and poetry. They embraced more silence and solitude.”
The first single, “Hold and Be Held”, arrives April 15—a harmonic response to the words of Nikki Giovanni’s poem This World Is Not A Pleasant Place To Be. Across the album’s five pieces, Guidry’s bassoon becomes both voice and vessel, joined by Elizabeth Steiner’s grounding harp and Diego Gaeta’stransportive synths, to explore the spiritual and sonic terrains of living with Bipolar II disorder.
Each track offers a different vantage point of Guidry’s emotional and psychological landscape:
Across the album’s five compositions, Guidry’s bassoon becomes both voice and vessel, joined by Elizabeth Steiner’s grounding harp and Diego Gaeta’s transportive synths, to explore the spiritual and sonic terrains of living with Bipolar II disorder. “Convince Me to Stay” confronts lifelong struggles with suicidal ideation. “You’ve Done What You Can” meditates in minimalist dialogue between bassoons, voices, and synths. “Myles” paints a portrait of Guidry’s younger brother—a source of joy and resilience. The 16-minute closer, “I Know You’re Always With Me,” is a gospel-fuelled surrender, swelling with praise and release.
As writer Kehinde Alonge reflects in the album’s linear notes:
“The listener of these prayers can find the will to become a prayer itself—transient yet resolved by the strength of its insistence to demand the refuge of what could always be.”
Photo Credit: Cole Douglas
Track List
Convince Me To Stay
You’ve Done What You Can
Hold and Be Held
Myles
I Know You’re Always With Me
Tour Dates
May 10, 2025 – Quartet with SCRAAATCH & MAYSON at Fridman Gallery, New York, NY
May 17, 2025 – Solo at XJazz Festival, Berlin, Germany
A solo performance at the XJazz Festival.
May 19, 2025 – Solo at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands
A solo performance at Bimhuis.Brooklyn Museum+2guidrybassoon.com+2Songkick+2
May 22, 2025 – Solo at Jazz Montez, Frankfurt, Germany
A solo performance at Jazz Montez.guidrybassoon.com
May 23, 2025 – Solo at King Georg, Cologne, Germany
A solo performance at King Georg Jazz Club.stubhub.com+1guidrybassoon.com+1
June 14, 2025 – Joy Guidry Trio at Dripping Festival
KP Communications