Search - Emily Remler: Bebop and Swing Guitar on DVD

A nice introduction to the person inside the player

Patrick E. Molloy | Tustin, CA United States | 04/01/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I wasn't really exposed to Emily's playing style until after her passing. So, for me, all I knew about her came from the static images of photos contained in CD packages, and from her playing style. I have long regretted never being able to have seen her play live, if only to have a chance to encounter the person who inhabited that technique.



This disc goes a long way to providing a bridge to that person. It's an instructional disc, targeted at a guitar player whose level of accomplishment is much more advanced than mine, but what stands out is the person, herself.



Like many other instructional videos, this one starts with the artist deep in the groove, playing a virtuosic introductory piece, and as she concludes it, she finally looks up at the camera and introduces herself. If you're an aspiring player looking at this disc for instruction, it's impossible not to take her seriously after watching her play that number.



Having watched this disc, I finally feel like I know a little about her personality, all charged up with Brooklyn attitude and the intensity of a player whose playing and timing had become second-nature to her. She talks about having graduated from the Berklee College of Music at the age of eighteen, so she undoubtedly inhabited a very competitive environment, and since there weren't a lot of women playing this type of jazz guitar in those days, it's likely that she had to push herself to be that much better than her male colleagues, just to get noticed.



She has no problem dropping the names of other guitar masters who had told her how good her sense of musical time was: guys like Larry Coryell, Herb Ellis and Pat Martino. In fact, while watching this 1986-produced video, I kept thinking about how much she resembled a female Pat Martino-type, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Like Martino, her guitar had become an extension of her very self, and it shows handsomely in this lesson.



She must have been quite a pistol, and if you were ever one of her students on the the guitar, you probably have a few stories to tell about her intensity and commitment to her craft. If you ever had the occasion to have been "taken to school" by Remler's guitar instruction, I envy you.



I'll definitely be checking out her other instructional video on Advanced Jazz and Latin Improvisation, and I hope to learn a few things from her, albeit some 20 years after she died.



Good to meet you, Emily!



"