Emily Remler


Emily Remler was an American jazz guitarist, active from the late 1970s until her death in 1990.

Early life and influences

Born in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Remler began guitar at age ten. She listened to pop and rock guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter. At the Berklee College of Music in the 1970s, she listened to jazz guitarists Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Herb Ellis, Pat Martino, and Joe Pass.

Career

Remler settled in New Orleans, where she played in blues and jazz clubs, working with bands such as Four Play and Little Queenie and the Percolators before beginning her recording career in 1981. She was praised by jazz guitarist Herb Ellis, who referred to her as "the new superstar of guitar" and introduced her at the Concord Jazz Festival in 1978.
In a 1982 interview with People magazine, she said: "I may look like a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey, but inside I'm a 50-year-old, heavy-set black man with a big thumb, like Wes Montgomery."
Her first album as a band leader, Firefly, gained positive reviews, as did Take Two and Catwalk. She recorded Together with guitarist Larry Coryell. She participated in the Los Angeles version of Sophisticated Ladies from 1981–1982 and toured for several years with Astrud Gilberto. She also made two guitar instruction videos.
In 1985, she won Guitarist of the Year in Down Beat magazine's international poll. In 1988, she was artist in residence at Duquesne University and the next year received the Distinguished Alumni award from Berklee. Bob Moses, the drummer on Transitions and Catwalk, said, "Emily had that loose, relaxed feel. She swung harder and simpler. She didn't have to let you know that she was a virtuoso in the first five seconds."
Remler married Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander in 1981; the marriage ended in 1984.
Her first guitar was her brother's Gibson ES-330. She played a Borys B120 hollow body electric towards the end of the 1980s. Her acoustic guitars included a 1984 Collectors Series Ovation and a nylon string Korocusci classical guitar that she used for bossa nova.
When asked how she wanted to be remembered she remarked, "Good compositions, memorable guitar playing and my contributions as a woman in music...but the music is everything, and it has nothing to do with politics or the women's liberation movement."
Remler bore the scars of her longstanding addiction including heroin and dilaudid. She died of heart failure at the age of 32 at the Connells Point home of musician Ed Gaston, while on tour in Australia.
Remler is buried in Block 4, Row 2, Grave 18 at New Montefiore Cemetery, New York.

Tributes

The album Just Friends: A Gathering in Tribute to Emily Remler, Volume 1 was released in 1990, and Volume 2 followed in 1991. Performers from these two albums included guitarists: Herb Ellis, Leni Stern, Marty Ashby, Steve Masakowski, bassists: Eddie Gómez, Lincoln Goines, Steve Bailey, drummer: Marvin "Smitty" Smith, pianists: Bill O'Connell, David Benoit and saxophonist Nelson Rangell among others.
David Benoit wrote the song "6-String Poet", from his album Inner Motion, as a tribute to Remler.
In 2002, West Coast guitarist Skip Heller recorded with his quartet a song called "Emily Remler" in her memory, released as track #5 at his record "Homegoing".
The sixth CD of the New York-based jazz guitarist Sheryl Bailey, "A New Promise" released on February 2, 2010 at the MCG Jazz label, was a tribute to Emily Remler, whom Bailey first saw at the age of 18 perform at the University of Pittsburgh Jazz Festival in 1984 and, as a result, was inspired to take her own guitar studies: “She paved the way for me,” Bailey says of Emily Remler, "I really wanted to hear Emily’s person in me when I played. It meant a lot to me to do this tribute and pay homage to her and to say thank you.”
At "A New Promise" Sheryl Bailey collaborates with Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Jazz Orchestra and producer Marty Ashby consists in eight tracks, including three composed by Remler.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

Year releasedTitleLabelPersonnel/Notes
1981FireflyConcordWith Hank Jones, Bob Maize and Jake Hanna
1982Take TwoConcordWith James Williams, Don Thomson and Terry Clarke.
1983TransitionsConcordWith John D'earth, Eddie Gomez and Bob Moses .
1985CatwalkConcordWith John D'earth, Eddie Gomez and Bob Moses.
1985TogetherConcordWith Larry Coryell.
1988East To WesConcordWith Hank Jones, Buster Williams and Marvin "Smitty" Smith.
1990This Is MeJustice RecordsWith David Benoit, Jimmy Johnson and Lincoln Goines, Luis Conte, Edson Aparecido da Silva "Café" and Jeffrey Weber, Jay Ashby, Jeff Porcaro, Ricky Sebastian and Daduka Fonseca, Romero Lubambo, Maúcha Adnet.

Backing musician appearances

Year
recorded		LeaderTitleLabel
1981It's All In The FamilyConcord
1985Soular EnergyConcord
1986John ColianniConcord
1986Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Jimmy Van HeusenConcord
1989Waiting for SpringGRP
1989No More BluesConcord
1990SabiaConcord
1990Bossa InternationalMilestone

Compilations