Emily Remler

joaopaz · 12-01-2016, 08:24 PM

I was here transcribing Emily's solo on Tenor Madness. This girl was absolutely extraordinaire...!

For the fine detail I always use "playitslowly" - it's Linux equivalent to "bestpractice" or "slowdowner".
I was in shock listening to Emily's playing at some 40% of the original speed.... I do this all the time and it's very common to hear how some players just "float" above the tempo, how they miss a note here and there, how they "squeeze" some licks to fit all the notes into a particular bar/chord.

But Emily, at 40%, still sounds with a rock solid groove... the performance tempo is brisk, but the way she swings/antecipates some short notes - and you feel she did it absolutely in command - puts me on my knees. The dynamics are there, very subtle at times but unmistakeable - and it's also very inspiring to see what she can come up with around a single pentatonic shape (1st chorus).

This felt like a revelation, to listen to that solo under a magnifying glass, and I had to share. Emily Remler sure was at the top of guitar playing and jazz...!

Now, please, someone add a "Emily Remler" icon to the new post choices!

**MarkRhodes** · 12-01-2016, 08:26 PM

joaopaz · 12-01-2016, 08:27 PM

...sorry, here's the video I'm talking about. And note this was a TV set performance! Still she was playing as if there was no tomorrow...

joaopaz · 12-01-2016, 09:45 PM

In case someone wishes to give it a go, here's the 1st chorus transcription.

**TOMMO** · 12-02-2016, 05:55 AM

Thanks for reminding me of adding some Emily Remler albums to my modest jazz CD collection - about time!

joaopaz · 12-02-2016, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by TOMMO

Thanks for reminding me of adding some Emily Remler albums to my modest jazz CD collection - about time!

Will have to do the same - just with the online stuff I can't listen to her in my 4-wheeled "music room"

**mercosound** · 12-03-2016, 11:05 AM

I enjoy Emily's playing more and more as time goes by - I really should own a CD or two of hers. Anyone have any recommendations/favs? Don

joaopaz · 12-03-2016, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by mercosound

I enjoy Emily's playing more and more as time goes by - I really should own a CD or two of hers. Anyone have any recommendations/favs? Don

She has done only 7 studio albums, so it's one of those rare cases where you can easilly have the full collection

1981: Firefly
1982: Take Two
1983: Transitions
1985: Catwalk
1985: Together with Larry Coryell
1988: East to Wes
1990: This is Me

**TOMMO** · 12-03-2016, 11:44 AM

Just learning the head of Sonny Rollins' "Tenor Madness" and I found a transcription of her first two solo choruses.

joaopaz · 12-03-2016, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by TOMMO

Just learning the head of Sonny Rollins' "Tenor Madness" and I found a transcription of her first two solo choruses.

Is that a link you could share?
It will be interesting to compare in the end. I transcribed the first two choruses so far. I love trying to figure exactly what the player is doing and also learn a lot in the process as you'd expect.

The first chorus is amazing, because it's so simple. It goes around the Bb major and minor pentatonics, but the way she uses them, the swing and the dynamics is so great.

Great simple tune to have on your bag 8) !

**Stuart Elliott** · 12-03-2016, 11:58 AM

Concord did a 2-cd retrospective: Compositions and Standards.

Her last CD, This Is Me, is a departure from the hard bop of her Concord work. It goes in more of pop Jazz direction, think of Pat Metheny, rather than Wes. Together with Coryell is excellent, but it a guitar duo album and probably not the best intro to her work. Her first album (Firefly) is perhaps a little weaker. Any of the others would be my recommendation.

**TOMMO** · 12-03-2016, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by joaopaz

Is that a link you could share?

The first chorus is amazing, because it's so simple. It goes around the Bb major and minor pentatonics, but the way she uses them, the swing and the dynamics is so great.

Yes, goes to show that it's often not so much how complicated your lnes are but wht you can do with rhythm and playing around the time.

Here's the link:

Extras

**Blues Fuse** · 12-03-2016, 02:55 PM

Here's a live recording from 1988.

http://ia600506.us.archive.org/28/it...teMT.mp3?cnt=0

**Flat** · 12-03-2016, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by mercosound

...recommendations/favs? Don

Don, I have a few but not all of her recordings. But from what I have, I like "Firefly" best. Maybe just because I've heard it the most. It's really charming.

I'll have to work through the others on joaopaz's list. What a remarkable talent!

I have an instructional DVD by Emily called "Bebop and Swing Guitar." It's great! You get a chance to sorta get to know her, hear her talk (cute NY accent). She's got another one on Latin Improv. I'll have to get to that one day.

joaopaz · 12-03-2016, 04:46 PM

Originally Posted by Blues Fuse

Here's a live recording from 1988.

http://ia600506.us.archive.org/28/it...teMT.mp3?cnt=0

Listening to it right now, thanks!

Originally Posted by Flat

Don, I have a few but not all of her recordings. But from what I have, I like "Firefly" best. Maybe just because I've heard it the most. It's really charming.

I'll have to work through the others on joaopaz's list. What a remarkable talent!

I have an instructional DVD by Emily called "Bebop and Swing Guitar." It's great! You get a chance to sorta get to know her, hear her talk (cute NY accent). She's got another one on Latin Improv. I'll have to get to that one day.

Those DVDs were on YT some time ago, not sure if still.
The Bebop and Swing is amazing... you really feel how hard she worked her groove.

**Flat** · 12-03-2016, 07:41 PM

Originally Posted by joaopaz

The Bebop and Swing is amazing... you really feel how hard she worked her groove.

Yes, exactly! To me, she seemed like she could really internalize rhythms and swing and feel. You could see it in the way she held her body while playing, in her deliberate foot tapping. Her playing seemed so organic, so musical.

She and I were born the same year, 1957. She died at age 32. She'd be 59 today. Heartbreaking to wonder what she might have been like today, what she could have accomplished.

Dig this...

**Hyppolyte Bergamotte** · 12-04-2016, 04:55 AM

here a very nice ballad composed by Emily,named "ballad for a music box",on her album East to Wes

**rob taft** · 12-04-2016, 06:31 PM

Great sense of time, fantastic player who was beginning to develop her own voice i.e. moving beyond Pat Martino and Wes Montgomery.

If you want transcriptions and vids. Be sure to check out this website.

http://allthingsemily.com/

**rob taft** · 12-05-2016, 06:38 PM

Nice interview below with Emily about a year before she died. She briefly talks about meeting Herb Ellis at about the 11:00 mark.

joaopaz · 12-05-2016, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by Flat

She and I were born the same year, 1957. She died at age 32. She'd be 59 today. Heartbreaking to wonder what she might have been like today, what she could have accomplished.

Dig this...

Jesus, that's beyond amazing!
The little bit entering at 2:00 and forward, with those dynamic changes ... she's all about the music. It's funny, one thing I'm discovering about her is that she literally explodes on the most simple stuff. She takes a small thing and makes it sound so big.

...not to mention the Ovation .... you'd give her an Ukelele and she probably would sound the same!

Thanks for sharing that, Flat!

joaopaz · 12-05-2016, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by Hyppolyte Bergamotte

here a very nice ballad composed by Emily,named "ballad for a music box",on her album East to Wes

Thanks for sharing that. Loved the sound and all the mood created around it.. (is that you playing?)
Nice, and that led me to the album and am listening to that tune now... the intro sounds like a Monk ballad but it quickly evolves to some other things.

Straight into my top of the tops' playlist!

joaopaz · 12-05-2016, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by rob taft

Great sense of time, fantastic player who was beginning to develop her own voice i.e. moving beyond Pat Martino and Wes Montgomery.

If you want transcriptions and vids. Be sure to check out this website.

http://allthingsemily.com/

That's a bold statement, Rob, but I don't think I'd have problems to aknowledge it. I love both Pat and Wes - and everything I hear from Emily Remler is up at par with the same level of emotion.

With certain players you disregard the instrument - whenever I hear Coltrane I forget about the sax and hear the voice. Emily Remler brings that quality too, IMHO

**Hyppolyte Bergamotte** · 12-06-2016, 03:32 AM

yes,it's me :-)

joaopaz · 12-06-2016, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by Hyppolyte Bergamotte

yes,it's me :-)

Nice to meet you, Sir! 😁
Very cool sounding!

**Stringswinger** · 12-07-2016, 02:15 AM

I saw Emily Remler live in 1985 at a long gone San Francisco Jazz Club called Milestones. She was an amazing player (I was sitting just a few feet from her the whole evening). I have all of her albums and feel that she is one of the legends of the jazz guitar. She may have died young, but her music is eternal.