It sounds very cliched to say that many of music's best and brightest have lived fast and died young, but it is so true. From
Jimi Hendrix to
Charlie Parker to
Patsy Cline, the 20th century was full of talented artists whose lives were cut short by their self-destructive ways. In an ideal world,
Emily Remler would have had a very long career and made it to seventy or eighty; instead, the guitarist used heroin and died of a heart attack at 32.
Firefly was
Remler's first album as a leader, and it is a promising debut. Joined by pianist
Hank Jones, bassist
Bob Maize, and drummer
Jake Hanna, a 24-year-old
Remler delivers an enjoyable
hard bop date. The album isn't groundbreaking by early-'80s standards -- although
Firefly was recorded in 1981, it sounds like it could have been recorded in 1961. But there is no law stating that every young
jazz musician who comes along has to reinvent the wheel, and
Remler (whose influences include
Wes Montgomery and
Herb Ellis) brings a lot of potential to lively, swinging performances of
Horace Silver's
"Strollin'," McCoy Tyner's
"Inception," and
Montgomery's
"Movin' Along." The New Jersey native also provides two original tunes (
"Perk's Blues" and
"The Firefly") and pleasantly surprises listeners by unearthing a pretty but lesser-known
Antonio Carlos Jobim song titled
"Look to the Sky." Unlike
"The Girl From Ipanema," "Corcovado," or
"One Note Samba," "Look to the Sky" is far from a
standard; however,
Remler's heartfelt interpretation demonstrates that the
Jobim melody deserves to be much better known. With
Firefly,
Remler's recording career was off to an appealing start -- a career that should have been much, much longer. ~ Alex Henderson
