Incredible Jazz Guitar

[Ducatista47]

I am listening to the Emily Remler CD I ordered, East To Wes. Hank Jones plays piano, and he alone is worth the modest price. Buster Williams is fantastic on the bass and Marvin Smith is fine on the drums. This is one of the best bands she ever went into the studio with. The CD is 1990 era but sounds good considering. Concord seemed to know what to do with digital back then.

This is way better than even I expected from the video work of Emily's I sampled on the web. In fact, it is an astonishing piece of work. One of the best Jazz guitar recordings I have ever heard. My lord, she was good. Clean, fast when the music called for it, and a very sweet player. Her musical ideas are a joy to hear. If you are familiar with the Jazz concept of needing to "tell a story," know that Emily could tell a story as well as anyone. She could play anything. While a bebop recording more than not, there is a lot of ground covered here. She did not end up being a clone of Wes Montgomery or anyone else. Someone should really do something about the fact that only musicians remember her.

East To Wes is such a pleasure to listen too. I am going to order another CD of Emily's, and I know I will not be disappointed. Now I am not only very sad that Emily died so young, I am pissed off about it. She did heroin and chain smoked, and sure enough she died of a heart attack. Didn't she have friends who could have helped her??? And yes, I know how difficult it is to save someone from them self, but come on.

[Krunchy]

This is way better than even I expected from the video work of Emily's I sampled on the web. In fact, it is an astonishing piece of work. One of the best Jazz guitar recordings I have ever heard. My lord, she was good.
Someone should really do something about the fact that only musicians remember her.

East To Wes is such a pleasure to listen too. I am going to order another CD of Emily's, and I know I will not be disappointed. Now I am not only very sad that Emily died so young, I am pissed off about it. She did heroin and chain smoked, and sure enough she died of a heart attack. Didn't she have friends who could have helped her??? And yes, I know how difficult it is to save someone from them self, but come on.

Hi Clark!
You certainly piqued my curiosity about her with that video that you posted, I liked everything about her, not just her incredible playing but her laid back style, and she swings. I've got three of her cds tagged on amazon, unfortunately a lot of her material is out of print or to be had at ridiculously high prices, hopefully that will change in the near future. Tragic story to be sure, what a shame, always seems to happen to the good ones.
Looking forward to hearing her music

[Ducatista47]

Well, Krunchy, I imagine East To Wes was probably her best work, but I too am exploring other recordings. I'll send you a report.

Since I have you set up for the kill , better sit down for this one. Same German TV concert with Barbara Dennerlien, Emily accompanying the singer Kim Parker. It is, most musicians know, more difficult to play with feeling slow than fast. Everyone can examine your performance through a microscope. It becomes quality over quantity.*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzSDPLyPpfI

How she could accompany that performance solo without the bass the usual Jazz guitar has, I will never know. She makes up for it with heart, I guess. And a ton of talent. Barbara must have respected Emily. The performance of My Latin Brother was the final selection of the concert. If you notice a few glitches, she was reported to be pretty high that night.

Talent does run in families; Kim Parker had two stepfathers. Charlie Parker and Phil Woods!

*To illustrate, here is a flashy exhibition by one of the greatest Jazz guitarist ever, George Benson. Great, but I like what Emily did better. Both done about the same time. I swear to God it sounds like George is being influenced by John McLaughlin here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn27IcAapPI

[laurie]

Well, Krunchy, I imagine East To Wes was probably her best work, but I too am exploring other recordings. I'll send you a report.

Since I have you set up for the kill , better sit down for this one. Same German TV concert with Barbara Dennerlien, Emily accompanying the singer Kim Parker. It is, most musicians know, more difficult to play with feeling slow than fast. Everyone can examine your performance through a microscope. It becomes quality over quantity.*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzSDPLyPpfI

How she could accompany that performance solo without the bass the usual Jazz guitar has, I will never know. She makes up for it with heart, I guess. And a ton of talent. Barbara must have respected Emily. The performance of My Latin Brother was the final selection of the concert. If you notice a few glitches, she was reported to be pretty high that night.

Talent does run in families; Kim Parker had two stepfathers. Charlie Parker and Phil Woods!

*To illustrate, here is a flashy exhibition by one of the greatest Jazz guitarist ever, George Benson. Great, but I like what Emily did better. Both done about the same time. I swear to God it sounds like George is being influenced by John McLaughlin here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn27IcAapPI

I am also a big fan of Emily Remler. I've got Transitions, Catwalk and This is Me since the early 1990s. With This is Me, she was going in a new direction, I remember back in 1990 hearing of her death and being quite sad about it, I heard rumours of heroin but only saw that confirmed some years ago. She was a great player and composed beautifully too.

I've also got one of the tributes the guys did in 1990 shortly after her death. Its called Gathering and the CD has guys like Herb Ellis, Marvin Smitty Smith, Lincoln Goines, Eddie Gomez, Nelson Rangell and other people who performed with her. The other tribute CD has Leni Stern, Steve Bailey and others - maybe Jimmy Johnson who played bass on This is Me.

[laurie]

I posted this on the Video thread but it certainly belongs here too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jojCh...eature=related

This rendition is really sweet, outstanding in fact. While Barbara Dennierlein in ostensibly the leader, this is Emily Remler's number. Sonny Fortune does a great job on flute, Barbara is uncharacteristically using a bass player (she almost always played the bass with her left foot on the B3 pedalboard), everyone is right there...but it is Emily that makes this so great. She is playing a borrowed Gibson ES-125 thinline with a P-90 single coil pickup (my favorite), and it appears to be a 3/4 scale model. I guess she could have played a broomstick with a string if she had to. I just discovered her, but I am already coming to realize how good she was. A shame only musicians seem to remember her.

PS A further note to guitarists. I have an ES-125 full body, and I can tell you that the tiny thin guitar she is playing has almost no bass in the body. I am sure now it is a 3/4 because the pickup looks huge. It all goes to show that it is in the fingers, not the instrument. It seems she was the opposite of the carpenter who blames his tools. What a terrific player, working live through all the problems she was having with the smaller fretboard on the single note work. A another giveaway is her looking so much at the fretboard. She almost always played with her eyes closed.

I've seen Barbara Dennerlien twice back in the 1990s, in 1991 at the then new Jazz Cafe in Camden Town then in 1997 at Ronnie Scotts. Not sure if Barbara has been back to London recently - the 1990s was a good decade for Jazz acts coming to Britain.

[Krunchy]

Since I have you set up for the kill , better sit down for this one.

That is one of the nicest versions of MFV I have ever heard (next to Coltrane & McCoy Tyner's) & yes, I suppose you are right about talent running in the family, very evident here for sure. Just kind of depresses me a little more knowing she's no longer with us, still in disbelief she was only 32.

George Benson is always amazing, kind of funny seeing him so casually dressed, I'm so used to his meticulous attire, that guy can play!

Thanks for the great clips