I’m back with another soundslice transcription to distract from 2025, a short two choruses from the late Emily Remler on a jazz blues in C, specifically Stormy Weather Blues, performed for a 1986 German-language 3sat broadcast. I think the tune is Barbara Dennerlein‘s own. She is on organ here, and besides Remler’s solo that I’ve transcribed, I also really like Dennerlein’s solo before Remler’s, and Sonny Fortune‘s sax solo after it; don’t miss out on those.
The tune’s progression is basically bebop blues changes (see here for a good rundown of various blues progressions, including an example of bebop blues changes in F). I’ve notated the changes like so in the transcription: [C7 | F7 | C7 | Gm7 C7 | F7 | F#dim7 | C7 | Em7b5 A7b9 | Dm7 | G7 | Em7 A7 | Dm7 G7], and again, Remler solos through this progression twice. If that looks like gobbledygook instead of something familiar, then I recommend the link above for more on this and related progressions, but the basic gist is that it’s mostly like a standard quick-change 12-bar blues, but with some ii-V turnarounds thrown in:
- Measure 1: the I
- Measure 2: the IV
- Measure 3: the I
- Measure 4: a short ii-V turnaround to IV (in a basic 12-bar blues, this would just be the I still)
- Measure 5: the IV
- Measure 6: a substitution for the IV, where we just move the F root to an F# and the other chord tones from F7 are present in the F#dim7 (in a basic 12-bar blues, this would just be the IV still)
- Measure 7: the I
- Measures 8-12: twice through a 3-6-2-5 turnaround (which is just two successive ii-V turnarounds) back to the I (in a basic 12-bar blues, measure 8 would still be the I, and usually a simpler turnaround would happen in 9-12)
So the setting is this pretty normal jazz blues in C; what does Remler do with her two choruses?
She approaches most of the first chorus like a “blues blues,” mixing C major and minor pentatonics, with tasty double stops and a fairly cliche (non-derogatory) blues lick repeated through measures 4-6. Basically playing out of these positions:
Remler maintains this approach all the way until the final [Em7 A7 | Dm7 G7] turnaround of measures 11-12. To my mind and ear, she approaches this part by playing chromatically around these Em7 and A7b9 arpeggios in measure 11 (and just over the bar to 12):
And then does similarly with this C6 arpeggio (rather than explicitly addressing the Dm7 G7 changes) in measure 12, just big-time anticipating the return to the I:
Chorus 2 kicks off with another repetitive riff in measure 13 that hits all the blues notes, before Remler moves on to a sequential minor pentatonic run. As measure 17 approaches, Remler switches into full Wes Montgomery mode to play octaves for most of this chorus, and she does a hell of a job with it. I won’t say much other than that it is impeccably executed; I’ve notated the octave passages how they seem to lay best to me (and at least roughly how the fuzzy old video suggests Remler played them), but you might prefer a very different fingering. Similar to chorus 1, there is a very blues-not-jazz feel for most of this part, until some heavy octave-doubled arpeggio outlining in the final measures 23-24.
All in all, this short solo has my favorite combination of simple ingredients/approach, executed perfectly with great feel. Hope you enjoy. (And also, if you’re in America, I hope you’re resisting tyranny right now.)