Biografie
Het begin
nglewood Klippen is nestled in de noordoostelijke hoek van de Provincie van Bergen in New Jersey en zit boven op Palisades van het noorden van Lee van het Fort direct van Manhattan, werpen de stenen over Hudson van schitteren en gilde van de Stad van New York. Het is een divers gebied en hoofdzakelijk een comfortabele woongemeenschap dat ons namen zoals Charles Lindbergh, Vince Lombardi, John Travolta, Eddie Murphy en in de herfst van 1957, Emily gaven.
mily was Remler eigenlijk geboren in Manhattan en kon geëistt hebben een wettige Newyorker te zijn maar zij werd opgeheven volledig in Englewood en hoewel zij heel wat tijd in Groot Apple vooral in haar professioneel leven doorbracht, voelde zij altijd als en verwees naar zich als meisje van New Jersey.
Emily was van een hard werkend huishouden, haar vader een vleesmakelaar en haar moeder in de sociale diensten. Zij had twee oudere siblings, een broer die de V.S. werd. de diplomaat en was een amateurguitar speler die beruchte Gibson S 330 die zij om zich nooit leende over te geven en een zuster bezat die later een advocaat en een taalleraar in de Stad van New York werden.
t was geen muzikale familie maar het was een familie die in het bereiken van en het doen, met aanmoediging om individuele ideeën na te streven geloofde. Hier werden haar fundamenten gelegd: als u zich toepast, zult u slagen. Deze vroege filosofie drukte zich door haar carrière uit aangezien zij undeterred door bias en het scepticisme van de mannelijke overheerste muziekzaken en doubters van haar capaciteit was. Zij liet eenvoudig haar hard werk en natuurlijk talent op guitar het spreken voor haar doen. Aangezien zij de Droesem van het interviewerGen in antwoord op zijn vraag over onderliggende sexism in de industrie vertelde:
Ik ben niet in zitting en schreeuwend over het, ben ik in het doen. Ik nooit was bitter over het feit dat er zo vele bandleiders zijn die me van aangezicht tot aangezicht hebben verteld dat zij niet me konden inhuren omdat ik een vrouw was, of dat er zo vele instanties zijn geweest waar ik niet muzikaal op werd vertrouwd en zij me met jong geitjehandschoenen behandelden omdat zij voorkwamen was mijn tijd niet sterk. U moet in zich geloven. Het kwam nooit aan me voor om in één plaats en wijfje over dit, over te blijven hoe ik geen kans werd gegeven. Ik denk het me meer verdienste - om werkelijk goed geeft te worden, zo goed dat het niet van belang is: om zo goed te worden dat u het overtreft.
Robert Jospe, vriend en uitvoerder met Emily biedt het volgende over haar vertrouwen aan en hoe zij zich in een man wereld… vervoerde
Zij was niet geboren virtuoso.
t’s hard to believe that at age 16 Emily was graduating high school without the ability to read music and knew nothing of jazz. Harder still to believe that by the time she would turn 23 she would be recording her first album, Firefly and beginning to draw a buzz from the jazz community as a talent to behold.
She was just 9 years old when she picked up her brother’s electric guitar and taught herself to play folk and rock songs with particular fondness of Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Early on it’s mentioned she had formed a small folk band and Buddy Hackett’s son is named as a member, my, my what we wouldn’t give to see the home videos of that now! She loved rock and roll and referred to it like most teenagers do as “good-time partying music”
but where she left the pack in terms of development is when she began to modify the 3 chords that made up her favorite rock song and explore other ways to make it more interesting to her. She could hear something else beyond the simplified melodies and spent hours jamming out new variations of her favorite songs, it was her way of “leaving the planet” although like many youth she remained direction-less about her life ambitions and had no plans for a musical career.
Still there were moments, dreams of playing the Blues when she listened to the likes of B.B. King and Johnny Winter and other small events along the way that kept drawing her toward the magic of music as the following story will attest, a poignant memory shared by Emily’s childhood and lifelong friend, Susan Itkin Kurshenoff:
In July 1974, the summer between high school and college, we spent a week or two at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. I took art classes and Emily took music classes, specifically learning about Indian music by playing it on her guitar and authentic Indian instruments. This was a turning point for Emily or at least part of her musical evolution. While in the evenings in our room she taught me to play “Stairway to Heaven” and “Bell Bottom Blues” (she could play Page and Clapton, not me!), she had moved on musically.
Each afternoon after her Indian music lesson, she couldn’t wait to play me what she learned and there was pure delight in her face as she played these new sound combinations, half tones and quarter tones, different rhythms and time signatures.
Although she might not have played jazz before she began attending Berklee two months later, it’s easy to see how she “absorbed” jazz, just like she did Indian music during her brief summer experience. She had incredible enthusiasm about all that music could be, every complex chord and rhythm and a determination to make those sounds come out of her and her guitar. 
It’s easy now with hindsight to realize that Emily learning these “weird time signatures” and being exposed to such a diverse and rich palette of non-traditional music helped spark her interests and later mastery of polyrhythms and Brazilian jazz styles where she excelled in her playing.
fter graduating high school with low marks, admittedly from too little focus toward studies, she initially had trouble finding a college that had a serious interest in recruiting her. Finally she enrolled at Berklee College of Music, not from any particular enthusiasm for school but simply because they had accepted her. She later mused, “it was easy to get in to, but staying was hard” . This was quite a casual and carefree attitude from someone that went on to pour incredible amounts of hard work into practicing and playing but it was her experience at Berklee that would have the greatest impact on who she became as an artist. It was indeed the first place she ever heard jazz and no less from the likes of Charlie Christian, Paul Desmond, Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans and even the up and coming Pat Metheny. At that point her life became clear to her;
I knew I would be a guitarist.
Jazz sounded “ so serious and introverted “, she immediately knew where to focus her energy and the directions she wanted to explore. It was her moment of epiphany. She had finally found her purpose.
Still, there was a lot of work and frustration.
or the first six months at college, Emily found she was unprepared for the focused intensity of performing and was too shy to play in front of her teacher for months but even this awkward lack of confidence would not prevent her from excelling and completing the four year course in just a little over two. She was a mere 18 when she graduated with a head full of ideas and a growing annoyance of what she considered to be her playing limitations.
She was most unhappy with her rhythm and timing and set about to eliminate this deficiency with intense day long, closed door sessions between herself and her metronome in a rented room on the shores of Long Beach Island in NJ. This self imposed woodshedding was how she spent her first summer after school before moving down to the Big Easy of New Orleans to rejoin her boyfriend and fellow Berklee musician, Steve Masakowski.
There she dove head first into the professional life of a working musician, playing small clubs and hotels (she was the guitarist in the house band for the Fairmont Hotel with leader Dick Stabile), music halls, weddings and also began teaching while continuing private studies with renowned New Orleans instructor and performer, Hank Mackie. It was an incredible period of personal growth for her musically. Emily and Steve had a small quartet called FourPlay that kept busy with gigs and she also is mentioned to have played many times with the R&B group
Little Queenie and The Percolators.
Others that were woven into her New Orleans experience were Wynton Marsalis, Joel Grey, Ben Vereen, Robert Goulet and Nancy Wilson. It was also the entrance of Herb Ellis into her life, who would become a major influence and mentor. Emily knew his work and found out he was in town. Being bold with youth she called him up and requested a lesson.
As Herb remembers it,
mily was only 20 and he was genuinely impressed. She was asked to perform at that years Concord Jazz Festival where she appeared with the “Great Guitars”: Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd, Joe Pass, Tal Farlow and bassist, Ray Brown.
From there her career was off and running. She left New Orleans in ‘79 but credits Steve and the city as the place that added crucial jazz elements to her growth and of teaching her ” how to get up there and just do it “.
But as you can imagine it was a natural progression to move back to New York and all it’s jazz appeal. She began jamming with area musicians, forming loose trios around town and backing on many occasions with the likes of Astrud Gilberto (where her deep love and command of Brazilian Jazz steadily flourished), John Clayton (her first guest appearance on an album, It’s All In The Family), Nancy Wilson at Carnegie Hall, and Eddie Gomez. She also kept giving lessons when possible and among her students was none other than Gregory Hines, who in turn invited her to Los Angeles to be a part of his production of Sophisticated Ladies that featured her playing many songs based on Duke Ellington’s work including Satin Doll * Mood Indigo * Take the A Train and Caravan.
All her dedication and hard work was beginning to shine.
It was a golden time, it was a time unwinding.
And the world was hers… for a while.
1981 was a very good year. She recorded her first album as leader: Firefly, married brilliant Jamaican Jazz pianist Monty Alexander and was chosen “Woman of the Year” by jazz historian and music critic, Leonard Feather. Although Firefly wasn’t considered groundbreaking by critics, it was a classic hard bop style album that she used to pay homage to some of her favorite composers and idols. For a twenty three year old woman jazz guitarist, it was a successful first outing. The following year brought her second album: Take Two, a challenging set of material filled with obscurities and rarely performed gems from Cannonball Adderley, Dexter Gordon and McCoy Tyner as well as a beautiful composition from Monty called Eleuthra, one of the highlights of the album. She contributed two originals herself, the emotional Waltz For My Grandfather and a fun swinging romp right out of the gate called Pocket Wes. That year also earned her a stay in Los Angeles area playing music for a stage show and appearances at many festivals namely Concord’s Jazz Celebration and The Berlin and Newport Festivals.
Transitions in 1983 marked her 3rd solo album and just as the title suggests, it signified the changing and maturity of her music and writing skills. Her own voice was beginning to emerge with great Latin overtones. Meanwhile she continued to build her reputation around the New York scene, gigging with jazz groups and touring. The high momentum career did have it’s downside on relationships, as it created too much unrelenting conflict to deal with and due to many “haphazard meetings” caused by their opposing travel schedules and other more personal issues that began to strain the young marriage, Emily and Monty divorced in ‘84.
That didn’t seem to slow her down any, Catwalk, an all original compositions effort was released the very same year. Mocha Spice came from this album and is maybe her most well known song but perhaps the most overlooked of her compositions is Pedals, a very Coltrane-esque song with haunting melodic phrases. Her writing had developed great range and complexity. She also appeared on Ray Brown’s Soular Energy for one song, then followed that with a great duo album in 1985 with longtime friend and guitarist - Larry Coryell called Together, considered by many to be a crowing achievement for a jazz guitar duo album. It’s memorable for How Insensitive and the best swing blues version of a misnamed Pat Martino tune, Cisco listed as Gerri’s Blues on the album.
It was a non stop schedule of playing and touring for the now seasoned twenty seven year old veteran and rising star. She was in high demand as a featured guest for albums with Rosemary Clooney and John Colianni as well as many live performances and festivals before her next solo album would appear and one of her most successful in ‘87, East to Wes. Such a great album from start to finish highlighted by her tribute to Herb Ellis called Blues For Herb, among other swinging bebop standards that she took to new heights like Clifford Browns Daahound . Mingled in were European and Asia tours and recordings with Hank Crawford’s Quintet while in France on a much overlooked jazz jam album called Bossa International and several touring venues with Larry. More circuits and guest appearances followed in ‘87 - ‘89 (Susannah McCorkle and David Benoit are the most notable names). She had also briefly moved to Pittsburgh PA, where she was Artist in Residence with Duquesne University and flourished at the local clubs, trying still to overcome her on going personal issues with substance abuse by keeping old habits in NY at a distance and new, more positive challenges front and center but life was also becoming much more hectic and demanding.
Time was flying, but time was grinding.
Jan Leder, a jazz flutist in the NY area shares this remembrance:
“I met Emily at DeFemeo’s in Yonkers one night at a jam session. She was an amazing player. She had just returned from a trip to Japan and had not slept, but here she was jamming away. We somehow got to talking, and talked for quite a while. Here was someone who I thought had everything I’d ever wanted, namely a “successful” jazz career and recognition, not to mention real facility on her instrument. After a while chatting she told me she envied me for my more “normal” life, and that made me reconsider the way I was looking at things at the time. She was clearly hurting, and yet she played so incredibly well. I will always remember her for how beautifully she played that night, and also for setting me straight in terms of appreciating what I had and was not seeing.”
n ‘89, restless with her music and wanting to take it a different direction, Emily signs a recording contract with Justice Records and released her last and fittingly most self assured album, This Is Me .
In this clear break from her earlier approaches Emily was branching out on the electronic side of jazz, incorporating the sounds of a Casio Synth guitar into her new mix of music that was still heavily influenced by her continued love and devotion of Brazilian melodies, evident in Carenia and Simplicidaje, as well as chord melody showcase songs like You Know What I’m Sayin’ and Second Childhood. With the exception of one title composed by David Beniot, it was another album full of her unique evolving sound and dreams.
Robert Jospe recalls how Emily envisioned her future.
All along she kept winning respect and acknowledgment for her ever growing presence and dedication to jazz. She was no longer the novelty woman jazz guitarist but simply a great guitar player in her own right. She was becoming comfortable with her own voice and vision in music and stronger in her attitude about style and substance.
She was making lesson videos, taping live performances on The Jazz Master’s series of television shows, still finding some time for teaching and her own personal studies. It seemed to be another good year.
” I was unprepared for the sheer strength of her playing. She was an extraordinarily daring player, edging close to the avant-garde, and she swung ferociously. There was also a deeply lyrical quality to her playing. She was a guitarist of unusual authority and individuality , a talented player who was one of the brightest happenings in the jazz guitar world of her decade. Harmonically, melodically and rhythmically, she had it all. ”
Gene Lees
he end as we all know was too sudden, too soon and without our permission. What could have been, what notes we’ll never hear is known only to the moon and stars. The truth and beauty left behind in the aftermath can be found in her music and her philosophies and that’s enough for us to reflect over, draw from and share for a long time to come.
We are lucky to have had the time and pleasure of her company at all.
~ Emily Remler died suddenly on tour, in Sydney, Australia on May 4th, 1990, officially listed as heart failure. She was 32 years young. ~
There’s no refuting the drug issues attached to Emily’s name. It may have been a contributing factor in her death, many rumors exist about what happened that last day and the days leading up to it but there is no evidence or statements released from official sources to conclusively document the event. This part of her history is merely a footnote in a few books or articles available about her private life. It was not considered or treated as a public topic by any of her family and friends, then or now.
There are of course many threads and links on the internet that swirl with talk of her known drug problems although the information offered is mostly unverified. This website does not wish to linger on the subject because any of our opinions would be purely speculative.
Emily’s official memoir is for someone else to write.
What I am sure of is that there is much more to Emily than her addiction and why my focus remains strong on other positive aspects. While the matter is debatable and even discussed in articles and links provided on the site, further incorporation into this unlicensed biography will be limited. Additional information can be found on the Library page (see side menu) where books available about Emily’s life story can provide greater insight and authority than available here.
That said, the audio below is an excellent and revealing interview conducted by David Brent Johnson host of Night Lights Jazz program with one of Emily’s fellow musicians and friend Robert Jospe, who gives us one point of view dealing with this delicate matter from someone closer to the situation as it was happening.
Click anywhere on this sentence and listen to the entire NPR program
Night Lights presenting “Emily Remler: a Musical Remembrance”
in it’s uncut one hour format from Indiana public radio affiliate, WFIU.
It requires real audio player for it’s streaming format.
David also posted an insightful blog giving his opinion of how the memory of Emily was handled, as well as his considerable collective thoughts regarding this issue that so many jazz musicians have battled. David is a devoted researcher and is well versed in Jazz music, especially the legendary players, a powerful passion for him that induced suddenly while listening to a recording of Count Basie in his college years. We are both from the same school of thought on the matter and I couldn’t have summarized this “issue” any better. Worth your time to check out.
Click this title to read: ” Emily Remler, Artist Sites and That Issue.”
No matter what your thoughts are concerning Emily’s substance abuse there’s no denying her incredible spirit, talent and dedication to music, to her fans and to her students. Her influences and indelible impact on the world of Jazz and the people affected so deeply from her contributions even to this day are the most important things to keep center stage as we go forward.
Emily’s place in the history of women jazz musicians.
ou tell me.
When asked about how she would most like to be remembered for musically, she responds:
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. You have to rise above it all by being good. You don’t get angry, you don’t get bitter, and you don’t get feminist about the situation. You get so damn good that they’ll forget about all that garbage.
This we knew about her, the selfless devotion to the music itself, it was never about doing it because of her gender, it was about doing to for the love of the music.
“Emily was a pioneer for all women guitar players. Her Spirit will stay with me, and I will often think of her as I enter the stage, pick up my guitar and play.”
~ Leni Stern
And this we also know about those before her:
There were many influential women who forged a way into the world of jazz with their voice, even a notable few that did it with a trumpet, piano , sax or drums, but as rare as that was, the list of women who chose to pursue the wonder of jazz with guitar in hand is a very short list and
Mary Osborne is one of the first mentioned names you will cross.
Mary was taught some early lessons on by Charlie Christian himself, and that right there, if it is the only teacher you list, should be golden. She was immediately taken by the sound of Christian, and recalls
” I had walked into the Dome Ballroom, where the Alphonso Trent Orchestra was playing, and heard what I took to be a tenor saxophone, I asked where the guitarist was at , then realized that the saxophone sound was coming from a crude amplifier attached to a guitar played by Charlie Christian. I was so inspired all I wanted to do was imitate him. From then on I had myself a mad little trio. “
Mary was in the right place at the right time and believed fearlessly in what she could do and what she wanted to know. There is also a reference to Marian Gange, who played guitar around the same time, in an all female orchestra, but the most impressive woman player Miss Osborne can ever remember hearing was in Chicago in the late 30’s. They were jamming for warm up in one of the downtown theaters, and Mary recalls,
” an older woman approached and asked, “Do you mind if I sit in?” I said, O.K., and she got out the biggest Epiphone guitar I’ve ever seen. She didn’t look like a guitar player, but when she started to play, I was so surprised at how good she was that I started to laugh.”
Her name was Sidney Bell and I’ve not seen her name mentioned or in print other than Mary’s recollection.
This was all taking place mid 1940’s through the 60’s, when she worked with some of the great names of the times: Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie and Art Tatum, Mercer Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams.
Mary went on to form her own trio and also her own business the Osborne Guitar Company in Bakersfield, California where she lived and performed until her passing in 1992. Her recordings are mostly out of print and hard to find at reasonable prices but her A Memorial CD of her best is well worth having.
Click Here to view her discography.
It seems there was an extended void of featured women guitar players in Jazz that Emily filled, and filled so gracefully, between the name of Mary Osborne and the growing list of really talented women jazz guitarists today: (Click names to learn more)
Sheryl Bailey ~ Joyce Cooling ~ Mimi Fox ~ Janet Marlow
Jane Miller ~ Amanda Monaco ~ Carline Ray ~ Leni Stern
Margaret Stowe ~ Dawn Thomson
and all you beautiful ladies everywhere out there, taking the lessons, putting in the time and passing it on.
For more information on women in jazz see these titles or websites:
NPR Profiles Women In Jazz: Parts 1 & 2. ~ Margaret Howze
Jazzwomen ~ Enstice-Stockhouse.
American Women In Jazz ~ Sally Placksin.
Jazz Women ~ website.
Ladyslipper ~ website and radio
Jazz Grrls ~ website.
Timeline
1957 Born, Sept. 18th. Manhattan, NY. Raised in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
1970-1973 Dwight Morrow H.S./ Boarding School in MA. Graduates at age 16.
1973-1975 Berklee School of Music. Studies with Larry Baione. Graduates at age 18.
1975-1979 Lived and worked in New Orleans. Performed with FourPlay, Little Queenie and the Percolators. Studies with Hank Mackie.
1978 Chance meeting with Herb Ellis, invited to play Concord Jazz Festival for 1st time.
1979 Moved back to NY. First recorded guest appearance, Clayton’s All In The Family.
1980 Concord Jazz Festival, Kool-Newport Festival, Berlin Festival.
1981 Recorded 1st album as leader. Married Jazz pianist Monty Alexander. Receives “Woman of The Year” award.
1981-1982 Played with L.A. version of Broadway hit, Sophisticated Ladies.
1982 Records second leader album, Take Two.
1983 Produces 3rd album, Transitions, includes 3 original compositions. Tours Canada & Netherlands.
1984 4th album Catwalk is released. Appearance on Brown’s, Soular Energy. Marriage to Alexander ends.
1985 Duo album Together, with Larry Coryell, released. Named ‘ Guitarist Of The Year’ by DownBeat Jazz Magazine’s international poll.
1986 Collaboration on Clooney’s Van Heusen cd, and Colianni’s self titled album. Plays Boston.
1987 Records live with Hank Crawford Quintet in France on . Toured Europe and Asia.
1988 Records East To Wes, featured on No More Blues with McCorkle. Plays Las Vegas. Produces lesson videos, Bebop & Swing Guitar and Advanced Latin & Jazz Improvisation. Studies composition in NY with Aydin Esen. Lived in Pittsburgh, Artist in Residence at Duquesne University, studies Composition with Bob Brookmire.
1989 Last collaboration recordings. Appears on Benoit’s Waiting For Spring, and McCorkle’s acclaimed, Sabia, and one song for a homeless benefits album called Christmas Guitars. Tapes Jazz Master’s solo performance show started by Les Paul. Tours Australia and New Zealand.
Receives Berklee’s Distinguished Alumni award.
1990 Lost to us on tour in Sydney, Australia, May 4th.
1990 Final solo album, This Is Me released posthumously.
