Meet Lisa Liu | Jazz Guitarist & Composer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lisa Liu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lisa, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I think following your gut is the most important skill to have, and that often involves risk and going against what other people think and advise.
Every time that I’ve followed my gut, I’ve made the right decision for myself in my career and personal life.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a jazz guitarist that plays Jazz Manouche (Gypsy Jazz) and Straight-ahead swing. I just recently moved to San Francisco after being in New York City for 24 years. My first instrument was classical piano, and I started playing acoustic folk guitar at 13. In NYC, that’s where I really developed as a musician and artist where I got to play a lot of different styles of music with some of the best musicians and artists from all around the world. I recorded 10 post-punk albums and then in 2012, I got tinnitus from all my years of playing loud rock music. My world was completely turned over, and I had to play music at lower volumes, and that’s when I discovered Jazz Manouche where I can play jazz on an acoustic guitar. I had to completely re-learn and redo my guitar playing technique and put my 10,000 hours in learning a new style of music. But it totally paid off, and it’s opened up so many new opportunities for me, and it brought me back to my first childhood love of wanting to learn how to play jazz. Roger Sadowsky, one of the best guitar luthiers in the world, put one of his guitars in my hands a couple of years ago, the Jim Hall Model, and that completely opened up a new world to me where I started to play jazz on an electric archtop guitar. I recently just recorded a straight-ahead jazz album on my Sadowsky with guitar, sax, bass and drums.

A major lesson that I learned along the way is that you never know where life is going to take you, so be open to it all.

Below is my official bio:
Lisa Liu is a guitarist based in San Francisco, California and is always on the move playing shows around the world. She plays jazz, gypsy jazz (manouche), folk, rock, and solo guitar. Liu is an Artist Ambassador for Santa Cruz Guitar Company, Sadowsky Guitars, Larkspur Guitars and Krivo Pickups. Liu has been published in Acoustic Guitar Magazine and has performed and taught alongside Mimi Fox, Martin Taylor and John Knowles CGP. She is a Teaching Artist at TrueFire and Django and June, and has also been an Artist In Residence at The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and La Maison De Beaumont (Provence, France).

Liu has performed at Birdland (NYC), Django Reinhardt Festival (France), SiX The Musical on Broadway, Djangofest NW (WA), Rocky Mountain Archtop Guitar Festival (CO), AAPI Jazz Festival (NJ), Django Birthday Festival (CA), The Music Center at Strathmore (MD), The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (Washington DC), Academy of Music (MA), Yale University (CT), Joe’s Pub (NYC), Barbès (NYC), The Knockdown Center (NYC).

“Liu performs with a confident grace that reveals an intuitive command of her instrument, and her versatile picking style ranges from a playful nimbleness to straight-up jamming.”

-Christa Titus/Billboard Magazine

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
It’s California, so the beach is where it’s at.
I’d take them to get a burrito and tacos n the Mission.
Chinese noodles and dumplings on Taraval Street in The Sunset.
Cofee at Java Beach Cafe.
A drive down Pacific Coast Highway.
Camping in the Redwoods.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This shoutout series goes out to everyone that has supported me unconditionally.
Justin Gonzales
Cait Jones
Mimi Fox
Aidan Grant
Dana House

Website: https://lisaliuguitar.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisaliuguitar

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisaliuguitar

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LisaLiuguitar

Image Credits
Chris Drukker
Aidan Grant