Sitting in a booth across from guitarist Emily Remler in the early 1980s, I made eye contact with her. We were at the West End Bar, a jazz watering hole two blocks from Columbia University's main gate where Beat Generation literary greats spent hours gabbing and nursing beers and whiskeys in the late 1950s. Emily was performing that week at the West End, and jazz radio host Phil Schaap, who was presenting a jazz series there, brought her over.
Eye-locked for five seconds or so, she struck me as a bird that didn't remain on a branch for long. In those fleeting moments, I felt as if I had looked into a window and seen something terribly sad. And Emily knew it, quickly drawing the shade by looking off to her right as she talked.
Emily struck me as being uncomfortably self-conscious for a performer and didn't seem to like the idea of herself. What I mean by that is she felt trapped inside of a stranger. As jazz journalist Bill Milkowski writes in his liner notes to the newly released Emily Remler: Cookin' at the Queens, Live in Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 (Resonance):
"In a 1982 issue of People magazine, guitarist Emily Remler famously said, "I may look like a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey, but inside I'm a 50-year-old heavyset black man with a big thumb, like Wes Montgomery."
Discovered by producer Zev Feldman, the tapes of previously unreleased material on the new three-LP and two-CD album was recorded at The Four Queens Club in Vegas. For 14 years, starting in March 1982, the club's "Monday Night Jazz" hosted by Alan Grant featured top talent whose sets were recorded and rebroadcast worldwide on National Public Radio under the title "Jazz Night From Las Vegas." The club ended its run in September 1996, after the hotel and casino filed for bankruptcy and before the Riviera took over the property that October.
Some of this material has been featured on YouTube, uploaded by those who taped the original broadcast. But according to Zev, an extra hour of material that has never before been issued is included in the new release.
We're fortunate to have Emily's sets at the Four Queens from May 1984 and September 1988. In 1984, her band featured Emily on guitar, Choho Arbe on piano, Carson Smith on bass and Tom Montgomery on drums. The personnel on her 1988 club return included Emily on guitar, Carson Smith on bass and John Pisci on drums.
Emily's playing here is extraordinary. Her swing and improvisation sail along with an airy groove and delicate intensity. Her chords are meaty and soulful. And she's never dull or plodding. West Coast bassist Smith, who lived in Vegas at the time, was a great get. Smith played with Gerry Mulligan (1952–53), Chet Baker (1953–55), Russ Freeman (1955–56), and Chico Hamilton (1955–57). He also recorded with Clifford Brown (1954) and Dick Twardzik (1954), and toured with Stan Kenton (1959) and Charlie Barnett (1960).
The 1980s were murder on upcoming jazz musicians, especially women. Interest in the music had been declining after 10 years of electric experimentation. Headliners had no trouble finding work in the U.S. and abroad, but artists like Emily were cast adrift, left to wonder whether they were really any good and why they weren't filling rooms, getting album deals or winning Grammys.
Do yourself a favor and listen to Emily. She was an extraordinary guitarist who never received the credit she deserved while she was alive and hasn't been given her due since her passing—until now. This new set is the first official live recording of Emily in her discography, so hats off to Zev, George Klabin at Resonance, co-producer Bill Milkowski and everyone else who was instrumental in bringing her music to market.
Addicted to pain killers and heroin, Emily died in 1990 of heart failure while on tour in Sydney, Australia, a country where she hoped to relocate. She was 32.
JazzWax tracks: The three-LP package of Emily Remler: Cookin' at the Queens, Live in Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 (Resonance) will be available only on November 29, Record Store Day. You can locate and contact your local record store by going here.
The CD, digital download and streaming formats will be available on December 6.
JazzWax clips: Here's a mini-documentary on the album and on Emily...
Here's Emily playing Wes Montgomery's D Natural Blues from the new album...
And here's Emily performing at the Richmond Hotel in Adelaide, Australia, on the night of May 3, 1990 (2 hours and 19 minutes). It would be her final concert. She died the next day after traveling to Sydney. Watching this will give you a fine sense of how special she was. It also will make you cry...
