Remembering Emily Remler on her birthdate

I am writing this on September 18, Emily Remler’s birthday. She would have been 69 today if not for her tragic death in 1990 which robbed the world of one of the great jazz guitarists, composers, and bandleaders.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Emily began playing the guitar at age 10. Studying at the Berklee College of Music, her interest moved from rock and pop to jazz. Learning the music of the great guitarists, she had a particular love for that of Wes Montgomery. She moved on to taking lessons from guitar great Herb Ellis, who dubbed her “the new superstar of the guitar”. He then introduced her at the Newport Jazz Festival, where she was a sensation. Her star was certainly ascending when the 1985 Down Beat poll named Emily “Guitarist of the Year”. This is particularly impressive as there were few women in jazz who were not vocalists. Emily Remler was forced to be a pioneer from her sheer love of the music. It could not have been an easy life, and most certainly was a lonely one. But in her short time she left us an invaluable treasure in her music.

You can find more than I could tell you about Emily Remler here on Wikipedia.

Premier Guitar also has a tribute page where they call her “The nice New Jersey girl who changed jazz guitar forever.” Unfortunately they call her one of the “Forgotten Heroes” and I’m hoping that it’s a category that no longer includes Emily Remler.

If you don’t know Emily’s music you can find a lot of it on YouTube. Her most well-known composition is Blues for Herb, her tribute to her mentor Herb Ellis. This is a great example of her style, fusing a classic blues start with a quartal (chords built on 4ths) end. Great tune!

She also loved Latin music and used subtle tinges of it in several songs. One of my own favourites is Mocha Spice. Aside from just being a really fun tune, her highlighting phrase endings with a quick harmonic “ping” is a true delight.

I’ve already done a post on Emily’s instructional videos, so I hope they are still available. Her albums can be hard to find, but they are all worth a serious search.

I plan to celebrate Emily Remler’s birthday by listening to all the albums that I have. I invite you to join me on celebrating one of the great guitarists who should never be forgotten.

RUSH: The Complete Scores from Hal Leonard

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If you want to learn RUSH’s arrangements, or just study them, you should check out RUSH: The Complete Scores by Hal Leonard.

As I wrote in the previous post, this book does NOT include every song written by RUSH, but contains a variety of songs from their first album to their last (40 in total). I have not had the time to check every single part and song but the ones I have checked are very accurate. The only ‘annoyance’ I can find is the inevitable space-saver of things like “Guitar figure 2 repeats”. This is not unreasonable considering the size of the book: I’m using the PDF version which is still 786 pages! Imagine the size it would take to include all of RUSH’s songs. Click on the link below to see the full list of songs included:

https://www.halleonard.com/product-family/PC25541/rush-the-complete-scores

Of course Hal Leonard has several separate notation and TAB books for guitar, bass, and drums. Some of these are The Spirit of Radio: RUSH Greatest Hits 1974-1987, Deluxe Guitar Play-Along No. 26, and lately the Bass and Drum Play-Along books with 8 songs each. These are great for learning individual parts, but if you want the whole sonic picture, the Complete Scores are indispensable. Check out the sample pages to see the level of detail in the transcriptions.

HIGHLY recommended!

RUSH is back and so are WE

RUSH is doing a comeback tour so we are coming back to celebrate this momentous event!

First, I would like to thank all of you who wrote to wish me well. I am happy to say that I have recovered sufficiently to be back in (mild) action.

So I assume that all RUSH fans know that they are starting a world tour in a few weeks, June 2026. According to Geddy Lee (in his book “My Effin’ Life”) he and Alex had been jamming and tossing around the idea for a few years, especially after the Taylor Hawkins tribute. The upshot was that it was “now or never”. Now all they had to do was re-learn their own songs, which was not easy, and find a drummer. A drummer, that is, who could fill the unfillable seat of Neil Peart.

Allow me to insert a bit of my own bias. RUSH played at my high school, and as Student Council President I played a part in convincing the council to pay for this “expensive” band. Of course they had Rutsey on drums at the time, and I confess I was most impressed with Alex on guitar at the time. But hey, I was a guitarist, and only played double bass in music class. Around the same time, my own garage band watched a concert by a local Southern Ontario band called “J. R. Fludd” which was good, but they had this great drummer who gave our drummer severe despair; we later learned his name: Neil Peart! I have always been a big fan of Neil, and I still love his amazing playing, especially on DVD. I was really sad when he retired, but he certainly deserved a life, much more than he got unfortunately.

OK, as most real RUSH fans know, Geddy’s bass tech told him about a great drummer who had been playing with Jeff Beck: Anika Nilles (pronounced Niles, like the river). Anika is known as one of the best rock drummers in the world. I will ignore the trolls trying to make money out of phony outrage. For the real RUSH fans, let’s remember that Neil RETIRED from RUSH, even before their final tour. He did the final tour, a small one, as a favour to Alex (Geddy points this out in his book, which is a great read and I highly recommend). And he had every right to want to enjoy his new family after his early tragedies, losing his daughter and then his wife. Please note that both his wife and daughter said they were happy about the new RUSH tour, when Neil’s words and music would be heard again by fans new and old.

The plan for the concerts according to Geddy is for two sets of “around an hour or a bit more” with an intermission between. The number of songs seems to be in a bit of flux. In his interview with Rick Beato, Geddy talked of dropping a couple of songs to add one more. Still, the number should be around 40 songs in total. RUSH plans to play 5 different versions of the concert to include all of the songs, to accommodate, as Alex says, the fans who follow them around “from place to place”. Very thoughtful. And of course, each set will include a special tribute to Neil!

Musicians who want to learn or study RUSH’s music should check out “RUSH: The Complete Scores” from our friends at Hal Leonard. IMPORTANT NOTE: This is NOT RUSH’s complete catalogue but rather a selection of songs from their long career. The scores of these songs are complete, with all instruments. My next post will review these scores.

All Things Must Pass

“All things must pass” sang George Harrison, and it is time for this blog to pass away.

I apologize for the number of posts I’ve made during the last year or so. I am dealing with some health issues which remain stubbornly persistent. And it seems that the more often I am in the hospital, the more mistakes get made. The nurses and doctors are definitely overworked. Still, an avoidable error and reluctance to investigate caused me to lose most use of my left hand. Not a good thing for anyone, but more so for a guitarist, bassist, and pianist. I have gradually regained some use of it, so on a good day I’m about 90%; on a bad day I can’t play at all. This impacts my ability to review sheet music.

I have to thank some amazing friends who helped me to get as far as I got with my guitar playing. Tommy Emmanuel was the first to encourage my fingerstyle playing, and he “got me to work”. I was privileged to be friends with Laurence Juber, and spend an entire day in Toronto with him, listening to his Beatles stories, capped off with a front row centre dinner table for one of the finest concerts I’ve seen. Martin Taylor is another major influence and another really fine person (he held up the line while my wife ran across to the parking lot to get a camera for the picture I put on this blog). And I can’t put into words how wonderful it was to spend an evening with Bucky Pizzarelli (again my wife took the picture of us that was published in Just Jazz Guitar).

I’ve reviewed a lot of books, mostly very good but almost none with perfect transcriptions. The very best transcriber is Laurence Juber doing his own music. I was honoured to help edit two of his books and even be entrusted with some transcriptions on Wooden Horses (my credit is in the text file on the DVD). That was a learning process, especially as we worked on opposite coasts. But most books have “good guesses” in parts that I usually check and I suggest that you do the same. If you can play the song then do it along with the notation or tab and check for accuracy – the book’s AND your own. There are now all sorts of great programs to slow down a song while keeping it at pitch, or even let you change the pitch to match your guitar. It’s good work for your ear so that soon you won’t have to rely on books, or at least not so much.

Thank you to everyone who bought my book “How To Write Your First Song“! I have been amazed at the reception for the book and I hope that lots of you have begun writing songs that YOU like. (NOTE: My author name is given as Dave Walker — I guess they felt that “Dr. Dave” might imply a purely theoretical book?) I’ve had a lot of requests for “How to Write Your Second Song” but if you have worked through the first book you know that it gives you the “tools” to write your second, third, and more songs. If you want a copy (or maybe even another) you can get them here:

Canada     USA    Deutschland

If you want something a bit more challenging I still recommend Jimmy Webb‘s “Tunesmith – Inside the Art of Songwriting“. It is a more personal book with lots of great ideas. Some have criticized his personal approach but I enjoyed reading it and got a lot out of it. My one caveat is that his version of music theory is somewhat different from any you might have learned. I’ve taught classical, jazz, and even Nashville-style theory, but Webb’s take is unique. (And I assume that his references to “Papa Bach” are at least partly tongue-in-cheek). Of course his music is written for big time artists and producers, many of whom unfortunately “simplify” his carefully worked out arrangements, so he chooses clarity over other styles of theory. Still, he can widen your harmonic vocabulary and teach you a lot about musical form, as well as a lot of general things about the music business. You will find it particularly valuable if you want to work with a separate lyricist, or music writer.

Finally, I was intrigued by the title of one of his songs “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress“. I’d read Heinlein’s book of that name and wondered what the song sounded like. By good luck, I first heard Rénée Fleming‘s incredible version. You may have heard of her as one of today’s top operatic sopranos, but that beautiful voice expressed the song so perfectly that on first listen I didn’t realize that her accompaniment was Bill Frisell on solo guitar (at his best). I was going to add Ms. Fleming’s version to the Wikipedia page for the song, but she deserves better than to be one on a list of about forty other versions.I suggest that you check out her own Wikipedia page to see what a truly fabulous career she is having. But since being a gorgeous singer with a beautiful voice is not enough, her foundation is partnering with the US National Institute of Health (NIH) on the use of music for specific medical conditions, combining Music, Health and Neuroscience.

So while I had planned on doing a post on Rénée Fleming, an operatic star with both jazz and rock albums out, I realized her life and career cannot be squeezed into a blog post.

I will leave my Gmail account live at drdavejjg which I check every week or two. If you don’t hear back from me in a month, something has gone terribly wrong.

So that’s it for me. Ciao. Farewell.

And thank you for reading.

Merci d’avoir lu mon blog. Adieu.

Vielen Dank, dass Sie meinen Blog lesen. Lebewohl.

The Wizard Brings Us Martino and Scofield

Stelios Panos, the “Wizard of BiaB” has recently released a bundle of two sets of Pat Martino performances and one of John Scofield. It seems that our Wizard will not be satisfied until all of jazz guitar is available for Band-in-a-Box!

The Martino bundle includes 71 songs / solos using BiaB’s audio stems of Real Audio, synced with both the score and MIDI. Also included are chord charts as well as TAB. A major feature is the separated audio tracks, that let you isolate individual instruments! You are bound to learn a lot from this master, so I suggest that you check this one out. If you are interested but hesitant, check out the free sample songs (found at the bottom of the page).

The John Scofield bundle includes 68 songs / solos with all of the same features as the Martino one. Of course there are some free songs to check out, as well as a video that demos the stems transcriptions, almost a mini-course in using these features in BiaB.

I’ll mention here that the ability to select individual instruments means that you can even leave Martino’s or Scofield’s parts out, and jam over the track to tighten up your own chops.

Both of these bundles benefit from the capabilities of Band-in-a-Box: slow down fast passages to learn them correctly and easily, edit TAB (or even score, if you like), transpose then to different keys, and more.

For more information on both of these great new releases (including BiaB requirements), click on their links above. You will be glad you did!

Magnificent Manzer

Linda Manzer, luthier extraordinaire, is being inducted into the Order of Canada!

If you are a guitarist or connoisseur of fine guitars, you already know Linda Manzer. She is one of the finest luthiers in the world. But don’t take my word for it; this is said by Pat Metheny, Bruce Cockburn, Carlos Santana, and many other great players. I have been fortunate to play a few of her amazing guitars, and they are a true testament to her wonderful blend of high art and fine craft.

The Order of Canada describes itself this way: “The Order of Canada is how our country honours people who make extraordinary contributions to the nation.”

Arguably Linda Manzer’s contributions to music far exceed Canada’s boundaries, but still it is wonderful to see her honoured this way. She is cited “For her trailblazing contributions and achievements as one of the world’s leading luthiers.”

If you have not seen some of Linda Manzer’s guitars (or even if you have) take a look at her web site at https://manzer.com/

Decades ago, Linda apprenticed with the legendary Jean Larrivée, Canada’s first major luthier. She also organized a special, art-themed luthier event which is chronicled on her fellow apprentice (and also a first-rate luthier), David Wren‘s website here:
https://wrenguitarworks347343029.wordpress.com/488-2/

Congratulations Linda Manzer, O.C.

My Effin’ Life by GEDDY LEE

Every Rush fan, every bass player, everybody trying to start a band should read this book! Everybody else will probably enjoy it too. Geddy Lee has produced an incredible memoir that chronicles his first interest in music, the whole story of Rush, and continues right up until this past year, when it was published. And what a story!

Or I should say, what stories! I promised not to put any spoilers in this review, and I recommend (hard though it is) not to watch any of his Youtube interviews about the book before reading it. (I managed it, so it is possible.)

Many of the events have already become legend, but with this book we get the whole story from Geddy, who was actually there with both keen perception and an excellent memory. So we get the full, true story about Neil’s audition for the band (along with the real story of why they needed a new drummer at such a crucial time). We also learn (along with Geddy himself) the reasons for his early “firing” from Rush, and their subsequent “rehiring” him.

One thing that die-hard Rush fans know but the more casual ones may not – but is key to their success – is their decision about music. I mean their early decision to follow a more progressive style of rock rather than try to write “hits”. How did they create such a huge, loyal fan base without hits and the subsequent airplay? It’s no secret, especially since their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: they toured constantly. Word of mouth about their fantastic concerts created a fan base larger than most “hit” bands. Of course, 14 platinum albums attest to the popularity of their music as well.

I have to note that this is Geddy Lee’s story. Except for stories about the entire band, Geddy respects the privacy of Alex and Neil, with just a few anecdotes that show how they worked together and stayed such close friends for over 40 years. A truly inspiring life.

The book is a well-written page turner. Anyone who has heard Geddy speak knows that he is quite eloquent, and for this book he is “backstopped” by Daniel Richler, a man with feet in both fine literature as well as music, especially the early TV music scene in Canada. But it is Geddy’s voice that we hear, one that made me want to go back to the start for the joy of re-reading his book.

I read a number of excellent books over the holidays, but this one is the standout. I CANNOT RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ENOUGH. But with this post, I’m trying.

 

New RUSH Play-Alongs

Hal Leonard has come out with three Play-Along book & audio sets for the music of Rush: guitar, bass, and drums. Note that each set contains a different number of songs, so I will discuss each one separately.

These three books may seem surprising since Hal Leonard has already published such fine books as RUSH DELUXE GUITAR TAB 1975 — 2007, RUSH DELUXE BASS TAB 1975 — 2007, and RUSH The Spirit of Radio 1974-1997, again for both guitar and bass. So it may seem surprising that the songs cover the period from Working Man to Moving Pictures but what makes the new additions stand out is their incorporation of PLAYBACK+.

All three come with Hal Leonard’s PLAYBACK+ audio player. This is really great for learning complex parts as it allows you to slow down the audio while staying at pitch, or if you like to move the music up or down by semi-tone, pan Left or Right (which doesn’t seem to do much, at least to my ears), and maybe best of all to set loop points to work on particular phrases or bars.

The problem with panning seems to be that the recordings are MONO. This seems odd to me, especially using a sound-alike band. I was hoping that the solo instrument would either be solo on one side, or at least more prominent. No luck. Even using VLC to force the song into Stereo, there was little if any difference between L and R.

The DELUXE GUITAR PLAY-ALONG inevitably duplicates some songs from the RUSH DELUXE GUITAR TAB 1975 — 2007. However, with 15 songs it has the most of the three volumes. The highlight for me is La Villa Strangiato; if you only know this piece (it’s much more than a ‘song’) from hearing it, you will be surprised and delighted by the titles of the sections. Many of the other songs are already in print, but not so many guitarists can play them accurately. This package is ideal to get it all right at a slow tempo and gradually work up to speed.

The DELUXE GUITAR PLAY-ALONG not only has the most songs; it also has the most options for playback. You can get the full group (no vocals, of course), the guitar solo, the backing track without guitar, and a scrolling TAB that accompanies either solo guitar or full band along with optional click track.

The BASS PLAY-ALONG contains just 8 songs, again from Working Man up to a couple from Moving Pictures. I have to wonder if this selection was chosen in part because repeat signs can be used in some verses. For example, although Geddy changes his actual lines in every verse and chorus in later music, songs such as Tom Sawyer have repeating bass figures, such as under Alex’s solo. There is NO solo bass option, and the bass is perhaps a little louder than on the original recordings. Again, panning does not change this.

The DRUM PLAY-ALONG has 8 songs as well from the same era. This is both impressive and possibly daunting considering the size of Neil’s kits, and the precision given to techniques. For example, the hi-hat played with the foot is notated differently from a strike with a stick. Again, you can leave the drums out to play along, but not solo them.

The “play-alike” band is very good, with just a bit of stiffness noticeable in the less common time signatures.

One important note is that these are three different book/audio packages. They do not contain all of the same songs, so they would not be appropriate for a band that wanted to learn a bunch of Rush songs together, but rather for individual musicians. Let’s hope that we see something for full trio from Hal Leonard in the future, as well as another bunch of songs from the post-Moving Pictures era.

 

My Book Is Now in German Too!

I would like to thank each one of you who has purchased my book “How To Write Your First Song“. It is gratifying that people keep buying it and, I truly hope, start writing their own songs.

I have to say that I was surprised when a statement from Hal Leonard listed my book with a German title — this was the first I had heard of it. Well, I’ve just received a couple of copies from HL Germany and they look great. The book is entitled: Einstieg in das Songwriting and is credited “Von Dave Walker”.

I had hoped that the original book could list me as “Dr. Dave” Walker or even Dr. Dave Walker so that former JJG readers and others who know me that way (e.g. via this blog) would know it was me, but the editor wanted to make sure it was not mistaken for a book of theory (a good point). So Dave Walker it is. This is a real-life practical book to help you to discover your own way of writing, and to help you get that first song finished to your own satisfaction.

Bassist’s Fake Book – Great Classic Rock and More

THE BASSIST’S FAKE BOOK
from Hal Leonard

Some of you have been anticipating this book even before me. At least, I have received more email about it before my review copy even arrived (although the slow snail mail system lived up to its name). In fact, I even got an “expert opinion” from an anonymous reader who told me that “us pro bass player’s don’t need yore ‘fake’ book – we know how to play from the real book”. I didn’t change the spelling, and I hope that most of you know the the series of Real Books are jazz fake books with melody and chord changes.

I mention this critique first because while the bassists that I know (including myself) can actually play from existing fake books on jazz gigs, and adapt to however the band takes a tune.

BUT … THIS IS NOT A JAZZ FAKE BOOK!

THE BASSIST’S FAKE BOOK is for classic rock and pop players who get called for gigs, audition for bands, or just want to learn more songs.The range is from Rock Around the Clock to Gangsta’s Paradise, The Beatles to Motörhead, Allman Brothers, Doobie Brothers, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash and much more. There’s even some disco, and surprisingly (to me) BIrdland (the version by Weather Report).

There are 250 songs in here, all of which qualify as classics in their genres, many across genres too. But how “fake” are they? Meaning: are they dumbed down for those new to the songs, or full, exact copies of the bass lines? Well, the answer is a little of both but mostly very good.

Some songs are easy enough to be included exactly, like most of Sting’s Police lines, and others that are pretty repetitive such as Whippin’ Post. Some are pretty difficult (especially at speed) but still quite accurate such as White Rabbit (those triplet 16th’s can be killers) and Limelight, which leaves out some of Geddy Lee’s wilder flourishes but is otherwise accurate and will sound fine if you can find the right guitar and drum combo. Speaking of Rush, I was shocked to see YYZ in this book! Even though it is not 100% accurate (I’ve never seen a version that is, and this one is very good) this song takes real chops to play, so if you are looking to gradually improve your playing using this book (which I recommend) then I’d save YYZ for last.One other small point: the alphabetization of the book is off in several places so if you are looking for a particular song you might want to use the contents at the front of the book.

Since Beatles fans will ask, I went through Penny Lane and With A Little Help From My Friends very carefully. Penny Lane is quite accurate, and the few flourishes that are missing can easily be added if you like, but it sounds fine as written here (and in fact many little flourishes are included). WALHFMF is a bit less exact, and if you are really interested Hal Leonard has much better transcriptions in their other bass books. Still, if you are a die-hard fan you can figure out most of the rest of the song from this version.

The level of difficulty spans a wide range, so anyone from beginner to pro will be able to start playing from the book right away. Songs are in both notation and TAB, and most have guide words to keep you oriented within the song.

Obviously I don’t have room to run through 250 songs here, but you can find the entire song list here: https://www.halleonard.com/product/350979/the-bassists-fake-book

Most bassists should find at least 150-200 songs they want to play here. Another plus is that the binding works exceptionally well for a book of this size, and it sits open on the stand easily. There are few page turns, and the most difficult — YYZ— is a song that you are going to need to memorize phrase by phrase anyway; I speak from experience.

In summary, if these are eras that you are interested in, you will love this book. The quality of the transcriptions is consistently high, if not perfect (hey, this is a “fake book”) and you can gig or audition with this book without fear of sounding bad. Moreover, you will have hours of fun playing, and playing along with, these classic songs. I predict that you will even discover some new favourites.