Friday, December 17, 2021

Emily Remler - Retrospective, Volume Two "Compositions"

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 1981
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 60:53
Size: 139,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:30) 1. Mocha Space
(5:02) 2. Nunca Mais
(6:39) 3. Waltz For My Grandfather
(7:24) 4. Catwalk
(6:28) 5. Blues For Herb
(8:03) 6. Transitions
(4:10) 7. The Firefly
(6:17) 8. East To Wes
(4:30) 9. Antonio
(7:46) 10. Mozambique

Emily Remler (September 18, 1957 – May 4, 1990) was an American jazz guitarist who rose to prominence in the 1980s. She recorded seven albums of hard bop, jazz standards and fusion guitar.

Born in New York City, Remler began to play the guitar at the age of ten. Initially inspired by rock artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter as well as other popular styles of music, she experienced a musical epiphany during her studies from 1974 to 1976 at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She began to listen to such legendary jazz greats as Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Pat Martino, Charlie Christian, Miles Davis and John Coltrane and took up jazz with a ferocious intensity, practicing almost constantly and never looked back. After graduating Berklee at age 18 she started her professional career touring around the USA.

Remler's first significant and formative step as a fledgling professional musician was to settle in New Orleans where she played in blues and jazz clubs working with bands such as FourPlay and Little Queenie and the Percolators before beginning her recording career in 1981. She was championed by guitar great Herb Ellis, who referred to her as "the new superstar of guitar". Ellis introduced her to the world at the Concord, CA Jazz Festival in 1978. In an interview with People magazine, she once said of herself: "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." ~People Mag. 1982~ Recorded for the famous Concord label, Remler's albums showcase the diverse influences of a fast-developing artist who quickly attained a distinctive jazz style on the guitar through her interpretations of jazz standards and her own compositions.

Her first album as a band leader, Firefly, won immediate acclaim and her bop guitar on the follow-up, Take Two, was equally well received. Transitions and Catwalk traced the emergence of a more individual voice, with many striking original tunes, while her love of Wes Montgomery shone through on the stylish East to Wes. When the rhythm section is floating, I'll float too, and I'll get a wonderful feeling in my stomach. If the rhythm section is really swinging, it's such a great feeling, you just want to laugh Emily Remler In addition to her recording career as a band leader and composer, Remler played with artists as diverse as Larry Coryell, with whom she recorded an album entitled Together, and the singer Rosemary Clooney. She played on Broadway for the Los Angeles version of the show 'Sophisticated Ladies' from 1981 to 1982 and produced two popular guitar instruction videos. She also toured for several years in the early eighties as guitarist for Astrud Gilberto.

In 1985, she won the ‘Guitarist Of The Year’ award in Down Beat magazine’s international poll. In 1988, she was 'Artist in Residence' at Duquesne University and, in 1989, received Berklee's Distinguished Alumni award. She married Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander in 1981, the marriage ending in 1984. Her first guitar was her elder brother's Gibson ES-330, and she played a Borys B120 hollow body electric towards the end of the 1980s. Her acoustic guitars included a 1984 Collectors Series Ovation and a nylon string Korocusci classical guitar that she used for playing bossa nova. When asked how she wanted to be remembered she remarked: "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." She appealed to all audiences with her wide understanding of all forms of jazz. She gained respect from fellow musicians and critics because of her dedication, enthusiasm and remarkable skill. Remler, who was a heroin addict, died of heart failure at the age of 32 at the Connells Point home of musician Ed Gaston, while on tour in Australia. Two tribute albums were recorded after her death, Just Friends volume one and two, featuring contributions from Herb Ellis, David Benoit, Bill O'Connell and David Bromberg among many others. In 2006 the Skip Heller Quartet recorded a song called "Emily Remler" in her memory. https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/artist/emily-remler

Personnel: Guitar – Emily Remler; Bass – Bob Maize, Buster Williams, Don Thompson, Eddie Gomez; Drums – Jake Hanna, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Terry Clarke; Drums, Percussion – Bob Moses; Piano – Hank Jones, James Williams ; Trumpet – John D'Earth

Retrospective, Volume Two "Compositions"

Roger Kellaway - Cello Quartet

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1970
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:03
Size: 96,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:01) 1. Saturnia
(7:49) 2. Sunrise
(5:39) 3. Morning Song
(8:24) 4. Jorjana 2
(2:45) 5. Esque
(5:07) 6. On Your Mark Get Set Blues
(2:57) 7. Invasion Of The Forest
(6:18) 8. Jorjana 8

Roger Kellaway launched his reputation as a consummate iconoclastic musician with this album, which was considered an elegant breakthrough in its time. He assembled a novel quartet featuring his piano, the late Edgar Lustgarten's classical cello (Kellaway's favorite instrument), Chuck Domanico on bass, and Emil Richards on marimba and percussion, writing pieces using chord symbols and notes without stems to allow for improvisation. The resulting album falls ever so neatly between the cracks of classical music and jazz, sometimes leaning in the latter direction (e.g., the Latinized groove of "Jorjana #2"), but mostly occupying a never-never land of Kellaway's own invention. Lustgarten's lush, dark tone establishes a haunting classical ambience, which creates weird stylistic juxtapositions in pieces like the boogie-based "Esque"; on a few tracks, there is some truly quirky writing for a full studio symphony orchestra conducted by Kellaway. The most memorable composition of the lot is the instantly winning, deceptively simple "Morning Song" (later published in a version for tuba and piano!), where Kellaway throws in more than a hint of barrelhouse piano. This album became a cult favorite, in and out of print on LP and CD, but never too difficult to locate.~ Richard S. Ginellhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/roger-kellaway-cello-quartet-mw0000696916

Personnel: Piano – Roger Kellaway; Acoustic Bass – Chuck Domanico; Cello – Edgar Lustgarten; Guitar – Joe Pass ; Percussion – Emil Richards; Violin – Erno Neufeld

Cello Quartet

Lesley Gore - I'll Cry If I Want To

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1963
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 26:00
Size: 68,4 MB
Art: Front

(2:22) 1. It's My Party
(2:15) 2. Cry Me a River
(2:07) 3. Cry
(2:15) 4. Just Let Me Cry
(2:01) 5. Cry and You Cry Alone
(2:23) 6. No More Tears
(2:11) 7. Judy's Turn to Cry
(1:53) 8. I Understand
(2:24) 9. I Would
(2:19) 10. Misty
(1:46) 11. What Kind of Fool Am I
(2:00) 12. The Party's Over

Lesley Gore's debut album was rushed out on the heels of her debut smash, "It's My Party," and suffered from being made into a contrived concept album of sorts. Most of the songs were about -- as the title indicated crying, since the key hook of "It's My Party" had Gore boasting that she could cry if she wanted to. The effect, if only temporarily, was to make her out to be something of a novelty artist, even if one of the songs other than "It's My Party" (its inferior follow-up, "Judy's Turn to Cry") turned out be a big hit as well. Aside from the limited lyrical themes, a bigger problem was that the material, other than the two big hits, largely veered between tame treatments of pop standards ("Misty," "Cry Me a River," "What Kind of Fool Am I") and unmemorable soppy pop ballads by contemporary writers that tapped into the weaker aspects of doo wop-influenced girl group music.

this point, Gore seemed to be as interested in being an adult torch singer as a teen rocker, but her teenaged pipes were simply far more suited toward girl group-style songs than trying to be another Julie London. The big flaw is one that seems obvious in retrospect, but probably wasn't even seen by many who were helping to direct her career at the time: Aside from the hits, nothing here rocked respectably, or swung as Quincy Jones' arrangements were capable of doing, though "Cry Me a River" wasn't too bad. Gore would, perhaps to the surprise of many, go on to establish a respectable career with a series of hits that didn't always milk the self-pity bucket, though this first effort gave all the indication of her being a one-hit wonder.~ Richie Unterberg https://www.allmusic.com/album/ill-cry-if-i-want-to-mw0000845050

I'll Cry If I Want To

Bette Midler - Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook

Size: 73,1 MB
Time: 30:57
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2003
Styles: Jazz/Pop Vocals
Art: Front

01. You'll Never Know (1:44)
02. This Ole House (3:02)
03. On A Slow Boat To China (Duet With Barry Manilow) (2:31)
04. Hey There (3:30)
05. Tenderly (3:11)
06. Come On-A My House (1:50)
07. Mambo Italiano (2:50)
08. Sisters (Duet With Linda Ronstadt) (2:53)
09. Memories Of You (3:20)
10. In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening (2:44)
11. White Christmas (3:16)

Cabaret icon Bette Midler reunites with her old piano partner Barry Manilow for the first time in over 30 years to toast one of their mutual idols on Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook. Clooney was one of the top jazz/pop vocalists of the '50s whose clear, bright tone, impeccable melodicism, and smiling, girl-next-door image came together to make classics out of tunes like "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" and "Hey There" -- both covered here. In that tradition, Midler's plucky blonde persona and genre-crossing style and Manilow's modern day blend of Mercer and Porter make this album work -- most of the time. Mostly what you get is the Divine Miss M and "Mister Manila," as Midler affectionately refers to Manilow, returning to their '70s New York roots on "On a Slow Boat to China," a solid and classy version of "Sisters" with Linda Ronstadt taking the Betty Clooney role, and a very Dixie Chicks-esque contemporary bluegrass reworking of "This Ole House." Least of all, you get limp, hip-hop-lite arrangements of "Come On-A My House" and "Mambo Italiano," which only serve to drain the songs of any swing and makes the twee-period lyrics all the more cloying. Nonetheless, Midler -- who can carry a tune on personality alone -- sounds elegant and alive here and Manilow's classy orchestral arrangements frame the proceedings with the urbane glow of nostalgia for a time -- be it the '50s or the '70s -- when a big band, a great song, and blonde with a nice voice were all you needed for a good time. ~by Matt Collar

Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook