Since first arriving in Reno he calls “Reno de Janeiro,” Frenchman Remi Jourdan has owned a live music nightclub on Fourth Street, started a digital startup to help independent musicians from his home near downtown Reno, and coordinated multiple concerts and festivals across local venues.

Up next, he’s managing the musical portion of the Sept 8-11 Reno Tahoe International Art Show, in its first edition, with stages at the Reno Sparks Convention Center, a special night at Cargo and a gala at the Nevada Museum of Art.

“My role is exclusively booking talent, showcasing all the amazing talent we have in our area. There's going to be about 80 musicians and 17 performances in three locations,” he said.

Styles will range from jazz to blues, funk and pop, many of them coming from local musicians, who will all be paid to perform.

“I think that we tend to not think too much about our local community, as far as art and music. We tend to bring people [from] out of town. Post COVID, artists have been really struggling, not been performing. So the idea is … to support the local music scene,” he said. With rising rents and other inflation, many independent venues are also having a hard time putting on shows.

His digital music platform Tunetrax also has many Reno artists listed, and is a global endeavor he started from the Biggest Little City.

“It’s a self generated platform, so artists can sign up, it's free to sign up to the platform. The idea is for artists to create a profile, and [get] electronic press kits. They can publish the music, promote the music, to their fans, or music professionals to get booked. It's a very useful tool for artists to be competitive in [the] online community,” he said. He calls it an alternative to MySpace which before it disappeared club owners and booking agents used extensively to find and schedule musicians.

Once they make the jump to in person attendance, Jourdan urges fans to support their favorite musicians even more when they can. “You know, remember to support artists, you know, a little extra, you know, buying a CD, tee-shirts, whatever, because remember those guys didn't have any income for a very, very long time for the last two years. So, you know, it goes a long way,” he said.

Jourdan has had experience managing bars and clubs in Los Angeles and Paris, including the famed Moulin Rouge, which has been open since the late 19th century. In Reno, he was one of the co-founders of the Off Beat Arts and Music Festival which started in 2015. He first arrived in the Biggest Little City in 2007 after purchasing the Club Underground at 555 E 4th street, just as the Great Recession was hitting Nevada particularly hard.

Despite many challenges to keep that club open for as long as he did, Jourdan has fond memories of his Reno beginnings. “We had two stages, two bars and two different different rooms, one bigger room and one smaller room. I booked about 4,135 bands in five years. So that's about 80 bands a month, paying them, which was important to me as well, again, going back to supporting the local community … so giving opportunities [for] more exposure. I did a lot of all ages show as well, back in the day. I lost a lot of money doing that, but I had a lot of fun doing it. And you know what, today, when I walk in around the river and I see kids waving at me and saying, ‘Hey, how you doing, man? And like, you know, I have a hard time to remember them and, you know, they come to me and say, ‘you know, I remember I was 16, 17 when I first played your venue.’ That's pretty cool.”

Jourdan said back then metal shows and hip hop were the dominant genres, but that now the Reno style of music has broadened to appeal to all sorts of musical tastes.

Going forward, he’d also like to organize a music festival for the unhoused community, which would include paid for food trucks, haircuts and an outdoor stage. Jourdan would also like to reach back to his French roots and bring to Reno the “Fete de la Musique” which started in 1982, and now takes place in over 1,000 cities across the world on June 21st and into the night. The Biggest Little City has yet to have one. There’s paid events but also free outdoor musical events at all hours, in bars, restaurants, parking lots, coffee shops, parks, everywhere.

“That's something that would be fantastic to bring to Reno and let everybody be able to get involved, you know, and it’s free to get involved. Everybody can be involved during that initiative. So again, if anyone wants to get, involved [with these ideas], and help out and make that a reality, I'm all ears.”