Thirty-four years after her untimely death at thirty-two, Emily Remler and her guitar wizardry is back to astound us again and capture new fans of one of jazz’s under heralded guitar aces. Cookin’ At The Queens, Live In Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 is the first new release under Remler’s name since 1990’s This Is Me, her last studio recordings before her sudden passing in May of that year. Until now, though, there’s never been any officially-released concert recordings of her.
When archival jazz label Resonance Records put forth a collection of recently unearthed/remastered Wes Montgomery club recordings in 2023, I was gob smacked at the incredible guitar playing from a towering figure of the instrument, and this is despite already being very aware of the guy’s prowess. Well, now that feeling has happened again, not due to the late Wes Montgomery but from Remler. That’s even more stunning to me when I think of the context of the era.
You see, we’re in a time where insanely great, innovative guitarists like Mary Halvorson, Wendy Eisenberg and Ava Mendoza are not even thought of as being so good ‘for their gender’ but rather, elite in the context of the entire universe of music…and rightly so. It wasn’t always like that. Back in the 80s when Remler made her name, there were practically no other women out there seriously challenging the hegemony of men in the jazz guitar world (much less, jazz in general). She was able to win over many veteran musicians of the scene and some high profile critics like Nat Hentoff but not noticed as much by the jazz public.
While Remler put out a pretty steady stream of well-regarded albums throughout the 80s, none of them documented one of the decade’s most exciting new guitarists in a live setting. That motivated Resonance Records co-founder Zev Feldman to track down the tapes of a pair of Las Vegas engagements Remler made as part of a series of radio broadcasts that ran from the early 80s to the mid 90s called 4 Queens Jazz Night From Las Vegas. These performances from the 4 Queens Hotel on the old Strip were captured with some never even broadcast, given the time limitation of the radio program.
There were two separate Remler dates documented, one in 1984 and the other in 1988. In both cases, she fronted a local house band. The earlier occasion was a quartet with Cocho Arbe on piano, Carson Smith on bass and Tom Montgomery on drums. The second go around was just a trio with Smith again and John Pisci on drums. The relative unfamiliarity of the backing band most likely led to set lists of familiar compositions, nearly all of it known by most jazz fans. That in turn puts a brighter spotlight on Remler’s interpretive flair and what she can do to put new shine on old material when walking the tightrope of live performance.
There’s another reason to savor Cookin’ At The Queens: since most of the Emler recordings were never broadcast, this 2 CD/3 LP collection has over an hour of music the public has never heard before.
Through both episodes, Remler is evoking Montgomery, Benson, Green, Pass, Martino and other jazz guitar greats before her. Even early on, she was already distilling these influences into her own diction, and she was armed with so many different ways to improvise over each bar.
On Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin'” it’s instantly evident the woman could swing like a monkey in a tree, flashing the “feel, groove and soulfulness” traits that impressed Bob Moses in comments he contributed for the album booklet. On a bossa nova like “How Insensitive,” she cradles that melody, sprinkling little glissandos in her single line runs that seem so effortless.
For “Manha de Carnaval”, Remler performs solo to start, where she demonstrates a fully realized ability to play both the lead and rhythm parts virtually simultaneously. As the rhythm section joins her, she uncorks a procession of single line note designs from a bottomless well of ideas, then comes back from Smith’s bass solo and gives us even more. Perhaps even more stunning is a percolating reading of “Yesterdays,” where Remler not only got that swing but stunning technique out the wazoo, never missing hitting a note just right even when it gets heated.
The blues jams “Cisco,” “D-Natural Blues” and “All Blues” show how Remler makes for lack of piano accompaniment, deftly blending rich chords and dexterous single note inventions.
Perhaps the most direct tribute to Wes Montgomery (other than perhaps the relaxed swing of “West Coast Blues”) is taking on one of his signature tunes, “Impressions.” Emler’s bebop fluency is made more remarkable in her avoidance of overused phrasing of the style; she doesn’t even copy the great Montgomery, just references him. And her unaccompanied feature in the middle is a showstopper. More smoldering bop articulations are on display for “Tenor Madness” (video above), as well adept use of Montgomery’s signature devices, those octaves.
Her balladry skills shine for “Polka Dot and Moonbeams,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and “Someday My Prince Will Come,” where she does everything to make the song as beautiful as can be, never falling back on chops for chops’ sake.
Emily Remler departed while her legacy was still being played out with so much left unrealized. There was enough left behind to appreciate what a groundbreaking guitarist she was, but none of it revealed how that talent translated to the stage. Cookin’ At The Queens, Live In Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 at long last rectifies that.
Get Cookin’ At The Queens, Live In Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 now from Bandcamp.
*** Emily Remler CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
- Emily Remler – ‘Cookin’ At The Queens, Live In Las Vegas 1984 & 1988′ (2024) - December 9, 2024
- Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin – ‘SPIN’ (2024) - December 8, 2024
- Dan Blacksberg – ‘The Psychic/Body Sound System’ (2024) - December 1, 2024
