Guy Gonzales

Background

Guy Gonzales was born and raised in San Diego, California where he began his music career, and through music, met his wife of 33 years, Lynette. They raised 3 children in San Diego while Guy developed a career in Advertising Sales with Cox Communications and then, re-tooling his skills, became a Financial Advisor (for the last 15 years) from which he recently retired to focus on building the nonprofit, after-school program called The International Academy of Jazz – San Diego.

Guy’s business involvements have included various Chambers of Commerce’s including the Del Mar Chamber and the Regional San Diego Chamber.In the nonprofit world, Guy has served as a Director with the El Cajon Rotary, The East County Chamber of Commerce and the San Diego Young Artist’s Symphony (now The Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra). As an officer he has served as Treasurer for The Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges. He has also served on fund-raising committees for The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and Rady’s Children’s Hospital.

As a musician Guy has played with internationally acclaimed jazz artists including; Sonny Rollins, Larry Coryell, and Claire Fisher. He has also played for many celebrities including a former US President. Guy has had the distinction of performing on the KPBS award-winning music program called “Three Generations of the Blues” featuring blues legend Big Mama Thornton. He has also recorded with local Jazz artists including The Bruce Cameron Quintet, The Carlos Angeles Band, as well as Mark Hunter and, the late, Carl Evans from Fattburger. Guy continues to perform in Southern California with his Gypsy Jazz trio called The Gypsy Swing Cats.