Louis Valenzuela became one of San Diego’s busiest guitarists between 2010 and 2020, leading weekly jam sessions and playing jazz, gospel and R&B gigs.
He got even busier soon after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown brought the performing arts to an abrupt halt two years ago this week. His increase in activity helped many of his fellow musicians reconnect with listeners — and earn some money — at a time when virtually all live-music gigs evaporated.
But rather than rely on his guitar skills, this 33-year-old Lakeside native utilized video cameras, microphones and computers to create a concert livestreaming service.
Using the name ElectricLouieLand — in honor of his favorite album by Jimi Hendrix, 1968’s landmark “Electric Ladyland” — Valenzuela provided a vital lifeline by freely sharing his livestreaming skills.
“His service to our music community during the peak of the pandemic with ElectricLouieLand really saved most of our souls here,” said top trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos, the jazz curator for the San Diego Symphony and founder of Young Lions Jazz Conservatory.
“Louis gave us hope and the ability to perform for an audience, online, when we weren’t able to in person. He played such an important role with his livestreaming. It helped bring us all together, and I know a lot of other musicians feel that way.”
Daniel Atkinson, the veteran jazz program coordinator for La Jolla Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, is equally effusive.
“Like Gilbert, I have known and admired Louis for years now as one of the top guitarists on the jazz scene here,” said Atkinson, who is also the founder of San Diego Jazz Ventures.
“During the past two years, when the entire music world had to pivot to online performances, Louis dove into acquiring mastery of new software and hardware for both video and audio.
“He swiftly became the go-to person for our entire region, creating hundreds of online concerts with high production values and providing an essential lifeline for San Diego’s musical artists through the depths of the pandemic. His work has been truly heroic.”
So much so, in fact, that — in April — he will be officially announced as one of the 2022 national Jazz Journalists Association’s Jazz Heroes honorees. The award is being given this year to 29 recipients in 27 U.S. cities.
“Louis Valenzuela seems to embody the kind of energy, innovation and forward motion that characterizes jazz, and has opened up opportunities for others,” a Jazz Journalists Association representative told the Union-Tribune. “That’s jazz activism, advocacy and altruism in fine form.”
“I’m a jazz musician — I research things!” says guitarist Louis Valenzuela about his deep dive into livestreaming.
(Devin Blaskovich / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
From Holly Hofmann to Fresh Veggies
Castellanos, flutist Holly Hofmann, pianist Joshua White and saxophonist Christopher Hollyday are among the beneficiaries of Valenzuela’s livestreaming expertise. But the list isn’t limited to San Diego’s jazz community.
Other ElectricLouieLand artists have ranged from blues-soul vocal dynamo Whitney Shay and rock-funk band Psydecar to singer-songwriter Israel Maldonado and the experimental dance band Fresh Veggies Micro Brass.
Of course, Valenzuela had no way of foreseeing the COVID-fueled shutdown of live events. But when it happened, he was better prepared than most musicians to pivot to livestreaming.
Through trial and error, he had been honing his skills by livestreaming his own performances and jam sessions prior to the pandemic. He had also gradually upgraded his equipment, adding GoPro cameras, higher quality routing systems, studio-caliber microphones and better software for his digital audio workstation.
“I’m a jazz musician — I research things!” said Valenzuela, the son of a Mexican-American father and Iraqi-born mother. He is a member of the jazz faculty at both Mesa College and San Diego State University, where he earned his master’s degree in music.
When the pandemic struck, launching ElectricLouieLand was a case of business as unusual. “The new normal” had yet to be determined.
As a part-owner of Chula Vista’s Avant Garde Music Company, Valenzuela had access to a suddenly empty recording studio. It became ElectricLouieLand’s livestreamed concerts headquarters.
The studio’s three adjoining rooms, partitioned by plexiglass, enabled him to isolate older musicians who were at greater risk of getting COVID. Except for brass and wind players, masks were required. So were negative test results.
“That made everyone doing the livestreams feel more comfortable,” Valenzuela said.
When Castellanos began performing socially distanced outdoor dinner shows each Wednesday night at Balboa Park’s Panama 66 in March 2021, Valenzuela was on hand to livestream them.
San Diego radio station KSDS-FM Jazz 88 — which at the time had shuttered its studios and was broadcasting entirely remotely — began airing Valenzuela’s livestreams on Saturday evenings.
The station now devotes an hour each Saturday to airing a compilation of his recently streamed performances on “Jazz Night San Diego.”
Louis Valenzuela is shown in his North Park home. He is seated below a concert photo of guitar icon Jimi Hendrix, whose 1968 “Electric Ladyland” album inspired the name of his ElectricLouieLand music livestreams.
(Devin Blaskovich / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
‘I felt compelled to do this’
“When the pandemic started, I worried about how I would be able to pay my rent. Everyone was thinking the same thing,” Valenzuela said.
“But I didn’t want to dwell on that. I thought: ‘Well, I have all these (technological) resources, thankfully, so why don’t we try livestreaming and see if it helps?’ I didn’t have a choice, really. I felt compelled to do this.”
Now, two years later, he is happily back to doing live gigs six days a week, while continuing to do livestreams.
On Tuesdays, he plays from 7 to 9 p.m. with the John Reynolds Quartet at Madison On Park in University Heights. Then comes a gig from 10 p.m. to midnight that he co-leads with trombonist Matt Hall at Seven Grand in North Park.
Wednesdays find Valenzuela teaching online guitar and bass classes to Mesa College students by day and stopping in at Castellanos’ weekly jam sessions at Panama 66 by night.
Thursdays are devoted largely to video-editing work during the day, followed by Valenzuela’s weekly jam sessions — which showcase Great American Songbook classics — at Blind Lady Ale House in Normal Heights.
Fridays are usually open for whatever last-minute performance opportunities pop up, while Saturdays find the guitarist and Hall doing their weekly brunch gig at Pali Wine Co. in Little Italy. Once a month on Saturday nights, the two perform at the restaurant Hob Nob Hill in Bankers Hill.
On Sundays, Valenzuela plays gospel music as the guitarist in the house band at Total Deliverance Worship Service in San Diego’s Grant Hill neighborhood. Next Sunday, he’ll play guitar at the monthly “Soul Sunday” open-air concert at downtown’s Courtyard.
On Monday mornings, Valenzuela teaches one-on-one guitar classes at SDSU. On Monday nights, he leads all-ages jam sessions at Amplified Ale Works Kitchen & Beer Garden’s new downstairs bar, The Acid Vault. But his jams there have a twist.
Instead of using what musicians call a “fake book,” which contains sheet music for hundreds of decades-old jazz standards, Valenzuela has created what he calls the SDRealBook. It features contemporary compositions by such top area musicians as trumpeter Castellanos and pianist White.
“I’m putting it up on my website, electriclouieland.com, and I’ll constantly be updating it,” said Valenzuela, who plans to record his long-overdue first solo album. Creating and livestreaming music remains his dual focus.
“Honestly, when the pandemic began, it wasn’t like I thought: ‘Livestreaming concerts will be the answer to everyone’s problems’,” Valenzuela said.
“I made what I thought was the best choice in the moment. Looking back, it was the best thing. Because, from here on out, I’ll keep doing more of this.”
“Soul Sunday,” featuring Louis Valenzuela
When: 5 p.m. March 27
Where: Courtyard, 1301 Market Street, downtown
Tickets: $15-$55 (must be 21 or older to attend)
Online: courtyard.com