Cookin’ at the Queen’s Live in Las Vegas 1984 &1988
Emily Remler
Resonance Records HCD-2076 (resonancerecords.org/product/emily-remlercookin-at-the-queens-live-in-las-vegas-1984-1988-2cd)
Gifted jazz guitarist, Emily Remler, left this earthly coil in 1990 at the tender age of 34, having already established herself as one of the finest jazz musicians of her time. Embodying elements of the guitarists that she idolized, she blazed her own successful trail. Remler once 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.”
This archival, two-disc recording project just released on Resonance Record is co-produced (along with Zev Feldman) by noted jazz writer Bill Milkowski. Both discs were recorded live at The French Quarter Room in The Four Queens, located on the old Vegas strip on May 28, 1984 and September 19, 1988. It features a quartet with Remler on guitar, Cocho Arbe on piano, Putter Smith on bass and Tom Montgomery on drums, and also a trio format with Remler on guitar, Smith on bass and John Pisci on drums.
Stand out tracks include a tasty, up-tempo, swinging arrangement of Autumn Leaves, with Remler fluidly incorporating influences here of Herb Geller all-the-while completely prescient of her own style. Also on this track is superb solo work from Arbe and Smith. Polka Dots and Moonbeams is a tender and vulnerable take on the Van Heusen and Burke classic, bringing to mind the great Lenny Breau, another guitar genius gone way too soon. Particularly inspired is the cooking medley of Tad Dameron’s Hot House and Cole Porter’s What Is This Thing Called Love. Remler is fearless, and takes no prisoners here – channeling her hero, Montgomery, all the while literally burning up the stage with her stultifying technique, taste and communicative sensibility.
Incredibly moving is Gene DePaul’s You Don’t Know What Love Is. On this languid ballad, Remler’s emotional maturity and interpretive skill comes to the fore, while another stellar track is an up-tempo arrangement of Jerome Kern’s Yesterdays. Remler’s facile soloing is nothing short of breathtaking, and her intensity wrings the nuance out of every single note played or implied. This recording not only displays a great artist at perhaps the peak of her skills, but is also an essential part of jazz history.
