Emily Remler

The sixth CD of the New York-based jazz guitarist Sheryl Bailey, "A New Promise" released on February 2, 2010 at the MCG Jazz label, was a tribute to Emily Remler, whom Bailey first saw at the age of 18 perform at the University of Pittsburgh Jazz Festival in 1984 and, as a result, was inspired to take her own guitar studies: “She paved the way for me,” Bailey says of Emily Remler, "I really wanted to hear Emily’s person in me when I played. It meant a lot to me to do this tribute and pay homage to her and to say thank you.” At "A New Promise" Sheryl Bailey collaborates with Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Jazz Orchestra and producer Marty Ashby consists in eight tracks, including three composed by Remler (“East to Wes,” “Mocha Spice,” and “Carenia”).

In 2002, West Coast guitarist Skip Heller recorded with his quartet a song called "Emily Remler" in her memory, released as track #5 at his record "Homegoing" (Innova Recordings).

David Benoit wrote the song "6-String Poet", from his album Inner Motion (GRP, 1990), as a tribute to Remler.

In 1985, she won Guitarist of the Year in Down Beat magazine's international poll. In 1988, she was artist in residence at Duquesne University and the next year received the Distinguished Alumni award from Berklee. Bob Moses, the drummer on Transitions and Catwalk, said, "Emily had that loose, relaxed feel. She swung harder and simpler. She didn't have to let you know that she was a virtuoso in the first five seconds."

In a 1982 interview with People magazine, she said: "I may look like a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey, but inside I'm a 50-year-old, heavy-set black man with a big thumb, like Wes Montgomery."

Remler settled in New Orleans, where she played in blues and jazz clubs, working with bands such as Four Play and Little Queenie and the Percolators before beginning her recording career in 1981. She was praised by jazz guitarist Herb Ellis, who referred to her as "the new superstar of guitar" and introduced her at the Concord Jazz Festival in 1978.

Her first album as a band leader, Firefly, gained positive reviews, as did Take Two and Catwalk. She recorded Together with guitarist Larry Coryell. She participated in the Los Angeles version of Sophisticated Ladies from 1981–1982 and toured for several years with Astrud Gilberto. She also made two guitar instruction videos.

Remler married Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander in 1981; the marriage ended in 1984.

Her first guitar was her brother's Gibson ES-330. 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 bossa nova.

Born in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Remler began guitar at age ten. She listened to pop and rock guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter. At the Berklee College of Music in the 1970s, she listened to jazz guitarists Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Herb Ellis, Pat Martino, and Joe Pass.

Emily Remler (September 18, 1957 – May 4, 1990) was an American jazz guitarist, active from the late 1970s until her death in 1990.