Talk about forgotten greats … I’ve been listening to jazz all my life, and really digging into it for at least a dozen years now, and had never come across Emily Remler, the great guitarist who died at the age of 32 in 1990. If you’re ready for some swinging hard bop in quartet and trio formats from this amazing guitarist, Resonance Records has just the thing. Cookin’ at the Queens from Resonance Records drops as a vinyl set for RSD Black Friday, November 29, and on CD a week later.
“As time goes by, some artists’ legacies get even more interesting and become more important, and I think Emily Remler is such a significant artist,” says Zev Feldman, renowned “jazz detective” and co-producer of Cookin’ at the Queens. “She needs to be talked about and discussed more. She was a trailblazer and I hope these recordings are going to contribute to and validate her story and her importance.”
After listening to this one I can only agree. Opening with one everyone will recognize, Bobby Timmons’ classic “Moanin’, ” and closing with Montgomery’s “D-Natural Blues,” Remler offers a master class in 20th century jazz guitar. The generous 17 tracks were culled from performances broadcast on KNPR Las Vegas in 1984 and 1988, they capture performances taped live at the 4 Queens Hotel and Casino in the old part of the Las Vegas strip. In the 1984 selections she’s backed by pianist Cocho Arbe, bassist Carson Smith and drummer Tom Montgomery, and in 1988 by bassist Carson Smith and drummer John Pisci. Both ensembles cook and Remler swings mightily.
Such classic tunes! I love the quartet’s blistering takes on “Autumn Leaves,” the aforementioned “Moanin’,” Tadd Dameron’s “Hot House” paired with Cole Porter’s “What Is This Thing Called Love.” They know their way around a tender ballad, too, like “Polka Dots & Moonbeams” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is.” Like many of her contemporaries, Remler loved Brazilian jazz, and this quartet knocks out Bonfa’s “Samba De Orfeu” and Jobim’s lovely, melodic “How Insensitive.” They dig deep into bop history for Sonny Rollins’s “Tenor Madness,” which as the title track of Rollins’s 1956 LP is the only known recording of Rollins and John Coltrane together; here they turn the long workout of the original into a lightning fast workout, clocking in under 5 minutes, the shortest on the set, followed by a bluesy take on the old Bing Crosby standard “Out Of Nowhere.”
It looks like Remler’s influences were shifting a bit by 1988. With the trio she digs deep into various periods of Miles Davis, including a wistful “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and a couple of covers from the modal classic Kind of Blue: bassist Carson Smith is featured strongly on the atmospherc “All Blues.” The rapid tempo on Remler’s arrangement of “So What” rivals the way Bill Evans was doing it in this period as well; here it’s paired with Coltrane’s “Impressions” with a neat solo from drummer Pisci before circling back around to “So What.”
In addition to the modal excursions the trio set features a similar mix as the quartet,(with fewer tunes) including hard bop like Montgomery’s “D Minor Blues” and Pat Martino’s “Cisco,” an upbeat cover of Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays,” and a deep exploration of “Manha de Carnival,” one of my favorite guitar pieces — probably everyone’s, right?
Remler is such a joy to behold with her clear, classic tone, impeccable technique and creative soloing. In early listening, I find the quartet portion of this set the most inviting, but from first note to last Cookin’ at the Queens is essential. Deluxe packaging in both vinyl and CD. Highest recommendation.
So much good archival jazz music is being released these days. This one of the Bill Evans Trio in concert in Norway in 1970 really caught my eye and ear. Elemental Music and Zev Feldman continue to unearth amazing lost jazz performances and bring them to vibrant life, releasing them in lovingly curated packages. Bill Evans In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert will be 
released in stages, as an exclusive two LP set for Record Store Day (RSD) Black Friday on November 29, and as a two-CD set on Dec. 6.
The package includes a rare interview with Evans conducted by Norwegian critic and impresario Randi Hultin at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival; new interviews with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell, members of the pianist’s longest-lived trio, who supported him at the festival; an interview with Norwegian pianist Roy Hellvin, who was in the audience at the performance; reflections on Evans’ art by pianists Aaron Parks, Craig Taborn, and Eliane Elias; and concert photographs by Arthur Sand.
But most of all it includes new performances from Bill Evans live in front of an appreciative audience with bassist Gomez and drummer Morrell. Fresh off a successful run at the high-stakes Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the trio felt relaxed in the less pressurized atmosphere of this smaller Norwegian festival. Evans himself was maybe in better shape than he’d been in for some time, on a supervised methadone program on which he was weaning himself from a longtime heroin addiction.
But that doesn’t mean the music was “relaxed.” This trio is focused and energetic, pushing each other to heights on a program of familiar Evans pieces. In addition to some of the ballads and introspective works like “Emily,” “Who Can I Turn To,” “Quiet Now,” and “Turn Out The Stars,” they turn in sparkling upbeat tuns like “Gloria’s Step,” “34 Skidoo,” and “Come Rain Or Come Shine.” And it seems like it’s the pianist himself who’s pushing the tempo (sometimes to extreme) on standbys of the Evans repertoire like “So What,” and especially “Autumn Leaves.” The program wraps with a breath-holding stroll through the heart-rending “Some Other Time” and a gorgeous encore romp through “Nardis.”
Taborn sums up the special feel of this date in his interview with Feldman in the liner notes: “This group is swinging along in a brighter way, really bringing out a lot of the more rhythmic side of Bill Evans, which is one of the things that I always notice about him.”
Deluxe packaging for both editions. Buy yourself or someone you love this set for the holidays this year.
(Resonance Records, 2024)
(Elemental Music, 2024)
