Emily Remler: The overlooked jazz guitarist who inspired Emily Roberts
Raised in the sleepy, coastal suburb of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Emily Remler was an unlikely candidate for becoming a household name in American jazz. Surrounded by leafy hollows, rundown country clubs and tight-lipped PTA meetings, earning herself the status of a legendary jazz guitarist was what some might have considered a stretch of the imagination. That didn’t stop her.
Aged ten, Remler quickly turned her hand to guitar, having been completely absorbed by the musical revolution of the 1960s, particularly the acid rock style of Jimi Hendrix. As fate would have it, she soon became intrigued by the smoky underbelly of New York’s jazz scene. From the white-picketed shores of her hometown, a whole new world awaited, a shiny penny winking to her from the horizon, beckoning her to cross the bridge.
Remler packed her bags and set off to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, the stomping ground of the many who came before her. Inspired by its hallowed halls, her sonic landscape soon began to mature and evolve. Her projects paid homage to jazz greats Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Pat Martino, Joe Pass, and Herb Ellis, who later praised her as “the new superstar of guitar”.
Like a moth to a flame, her passion and talent eventually led her to New Orleans, a vibrant hotbed for up-and-coming jazz and blues artists. Settling there in 1981 with her husband and fellow musician Monty Alexander, the city inevitably became the backdrop for her debut album Firefly, an unusual and equally nostalgic record to be released in the garish glam rock ether of the 1980s. It channelled the height of the bebop sound, first brought to life by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell.
Although many of the male musicians Remler admired and imitated had issues or shortcomings of their own, none of them had to navigate the harsh reality of being a woman in the limelight. Remler often displayed a trance-like state – her stage presence was buoyant and filled with soul, but touring was also an abyss of drugs and temptation. She passed away on May 4th, 1990, having lost her battle with opioid addiction. Although Remler lived a relatively short life; her impact mustn’t be underestimated.
She continues to stir a multitude of young musicians, including Emily Roberts, the Jazz-schooled indie guitar messiah fronting British rock band The Last Dinner Party. However, the pair have far more in common than just their first name. With Roberts commenting, “If she can do it, so can you”.
Roberts picked up acoustic guitar at age nine before transitioning to electric in her teens in order to earn her stripes in bigger bands and Jazz groups. In 2022, she took the leap and released her first solo jazz EP, The Persistence of Memory, an intricately weaved tapestry of beloved bygone eras and modern artists, or to the trained ear, a love letter to musical collective Snarky Puppy and jazz-funk quartet Hiatus Kaiyote.
With a Mercury Prize nomination and the ‘Brit Rising Star’ award under their belt, the group are now considered UK rock royalty, forcing Roberts to somewhat leave her jazz head behind – at least for now. The band’s long-awaited album Prelude to Ecstasy has proven itself to be a fruitful debut, serving up a cornucopia of desire, envy, and twisted fairy tales ripe for the picking. Above all, it is evidently a kitchen sink of their interests, flitting from Remler to Queen and everything in between.
Emily Remler is often referred to as ‘forgotten’, but she exists deep within the very fabric of the jazz we hear and love today — her lack of fame tied to her tragic early death aged 32 following struggles with opioid use disorder. Moreover, her anomalous position as a female jazz artist back in the early days left her name crammed into what would now be considered sexist, ‘clickbaity’ headlines, but despite the setbacks, this allowed her to make major progress for female artistry and proudly pave the way for other women in music.
