Tuneful Trifecta Train Ride
Image by Getty Images and Unsplash+.
Early December 2024. I’m taking the Amtrak Vermonter train down to Maryland. It’s a chilly morning right now. Cool is the word I choose to use. Like the tunes coming through my headphones. Bill Evans kind of cool. The recording is another primo production on Resonance Records produced by Zev Feldman—a man who knows how to make jazz sound better than it knows how. This particular disc is a couple sets from Bill Evans from 1970 in Norway. The two-disc collection is titled In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert. Eddie Gomez is on the bass and Marty Morrell is on the drums. Bill Evans is on the piano. The show was part of the Kongsberg Jazz Festival that year. The performance is crisp and the song selection is a dream that is fortunately quite real.
Although Bill Evans is the star here—the attraction as it were—Gomez and Morrell’s playing is equal to the wizardry one expects from Evans on the keys. The playing and the recording are democratic in fact and ideal. Evans’ piano dominates the song only until Gomez’ bass sneaks up to take the lead. Morrell’s snare shuffles in a manner that is both singular and an essential element of the music being made and heard. I am reminded of a chevron of flying geese, the bird at the point moving behind another when the needs of the wedge require it. No matter who is flying point, the birds continue their journey. No matter who is up front—Evans, Gomez or Morrell—the music moves on.
It’s a groove that is sustained through the entire recording. I can only imagine the response of that audience in Norway, whose attentiveness is proven in its occasional applause after a particularly adept styling by the band. The thirteen tracks include Evans originals, some standards and an engaging rendition of Miles Davis’ “So What.” The production is superb; no instrument is shuffled to the rear of the recording nor is there a heavy presence that often muffles certain moments in a live recording. Clear as a bell and present as a morning sun, the subtleties of the compositions are manifested in the trio’s spirited performance.
Emily Remler lived an extremely short life. Born in 1957, she died in 1990, her place as a jazz guitarist well established and her time on earth much too short. She recorded seven albums as a bandleader or co-leader in her lifetime. In addition, she was featured on several other records. In 2024, Resonance Records released a two disc set of a couple live performances from what might be considered her peak. Titled Cookin’ at the Queens: Live in Las Vegas (1984 & 1988) the recordings once again feature producer Zev Feldman and his team’s work. The result is another example of the exceptional production one hears on the Bill Evans recording discussed above.
The ensemble Remler was working with in these recorded sets is another trio as tight as the one Bill Evans was with in the Kongsberg Concert recordings. The difference being Remler and her guitar are the focal point of the group. Together with Remler are Carson Smith on bass and John Pisci on drums. The fluid synchrony of this ensemble is present throughout the recording. Emily’s guitar seamlessly weaves in and out, nimbly maneuvering along the fretboard, chords and single notes sustained or sharp as the music demands. As I listened (I was back on the train returning to Vermont), I was constantly reminded of the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Montgomery’s work is something I am relatively familiar with, having studied his technique ever since I first heard his 1960 album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery when I was in junior high. As it turns out, Montgomery was the guitarist Remler referred to most often as an inspiration. Still, there are moments on these discs where I was also reminded of the guitar sounds of rocker Carl Perkins, jazzman Joe Pass and George Harrison, whose guitar playing blended rock, blues and jazz, not to mention Indian music.
Like Bill Evans’ Kongsberg Concert recording, this double disc of Remler’s includes originals, standards and, somewhat synchronously, a take on the Miles Davis tune “so What.” After listening to Cookin’ at the Queens: Live in Las Vegas a few times, I wondered why I had not heard of Remler before. It was then that I discovered how briefly she had been on earth. In releasing this set of performances, the chance of rediscovery is possible. I’m trying to do my part.
Regarding guitars, their tones and their players, the third recording I listened to during my December journey was another newly discovered live release: BB King—In France: Live at the 1977 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival. King’s band at this festival featured Walter King on tenor sax,
Ronnie Wiliams III on alto sax. Eddie Rowe playing trumpet, James Toney on the organ,Milton Hopkins on the other guitar, the amazing Joe Turner on bass who together with Caleb Emphrey, Jr. on drums keeps the time for the ensemble. There is a sit-in or two from other musicians at the festival. The set times in a few minutes over an hour. In classic King fashion, the music is nonstop; he and his band keep the joint jumpin’ as it were. While BB is obviously the bandleader, it’s important to acknowledge the democratic approach to the tracks laid down here. Of course, the brass, the reeds, the organ and the rest step up for solos; they are also integral to the music throughout the recording. In other words, the listener doesn’t forget their presence, rendering them to a secondary place in their listening.
It’s a classic BB King set. The Thrill is Gone and That’s Why I Sing the Blues combined with a couple instrumentals and a dozen or so classics. The French crowd approves, clapping and one assumes “shaking anything they wanna’ shake,” just like BB suggests they should. It might be the blues, but the band and audience are certainly having a good time.
I enjoy riding the train and take the Vermonter line a few times a year. Suffice it to say that listening to these recordings made the trip seem like a ride on the magic carpet of Prince Husain, the eldest son of Sultan of the Indies, whose tale is part of the classic One Thousand and One Nights.
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