KATE WILLIAMS - PIANO
Kate has released several CDs, each one to critical acclaim, including Made Up and Atlas And Vulcana (with her septet) and Smoke And Mirrors (with tenor legend, the late Bobby Wellins).
In 2016 she formed Four Plus Three, an ensemble featuring her trio with string quartet. The following year, they performed at the 606 with special guest John Williams (Kate's father) on guitar. John also features on Kate's album with vocalist Georgia Mancio: Finding Home: Kate Williams' Four Plus Three Meets Georgia Mancio. It won album of the year at the 2020 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
MIKE OUTRAM - GUITAR
Guitarist Mike Outram has toured internationally and recorded with Carleen Anderson, Mike Farris, Laurence Cottle, Hamish Stuart, Tim Garland, Theo Travis, Steven Wilson, Nikki Iles, and Laura Rossi. He is Guitar Professor at The Royal Academy, Trinity Laban & The Guildhall, London, and leads an online community of over 700 guitarists at ElectricCampfire.com
‘world-class’= The Guardian
MATT FISHWICK - DRUMS
Matt’s reputation is such that he is one of the “go to” drummers in London. Having being exposed to jazz from an early age by his father, he and his twin brother ,Steve, started playing jazz gigs in their teens.
He left his home town of Manchester and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. It was here that he played with a vast array of jazz talent including Mike Carr, Dave Cliff, Jim Mullen and numerous others. He lived and worked in New York from 2004-2009 and again played with numerous notable jazz artists. Matt has his own quartet and also co leads a band with his twin brother Steve.
MARIANNE WINDHAM - BASS
The founder and driving force behind Guildford Jazz, Marianne started her musical life playing cello, taking up playing bass more recently. In 2011 she left a successful career in software consultancy to pursue learning bass full time and has since become well established on the scene and has performed with many of the UK’s leading jazz musicians including Alan Barnes, Steve Waterman, Mark Nightingale, Sara Dowling, Derek Nash, Dave O’Higgins and many others. She also chairs Fleet Jazz Club, and has a busy schedule performing both locally and at clubs and festivals around the country
ABOUT THE MUSIC
EMILY REMLER
Emily Remler (1957-1990) was an explosive jazz guitarist known for her extraordinary time feel, technique, and mastery of traditional bebop language. During her lifetime she was considered one of the top guitarists in the lineage of Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery.
She played with musicians including Ray Brown, Eddie Gomez, Larry Coryell, and Nancy Wilson before suffering a tragic early death at the age of 32.
Emily Remler was born on Sept. 18, 1957, and raised in a suburb of New Jersey. Her first exposure to music was through her brother, who had a Gibson ES-330.
In her teenage years, Remler was sent to a boarding school where she immersed herself in rock and folk music. Of her younger self, Remler said, "I was into having parties and being a hippie, a very young hippie".
Her early influences during this period were Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, B.B. King and Johnny Winter.Upon graduating high school early (at the age of only 16), Remler was accepted into the Berklee College of Music. She was later dismissive of her playing during her school years, noting that one teacher told her that her time was bad. This comment had a profound effect on Remler, and she began obsessively practicing with a metronome.
During her time at Berklee she began a relationship with guitarist Steve Masakowski, and together they would move to New Orleans. Remler flourished in the new environment and began to build her reputation as a force on the instrument. She became friends with Herb Ellis, played with Ray Brown, and was promised a future contract with the Concord Jazz Label.
Although her schooling had ended, Remler's obsessive practice habits persisted. In a later interview she described her approach of purposefully limiting her practice to straight-ahead bebop. Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass were her guitarists of choice, and she absorbed their phrasing and time feel through transcriptions.
After her relationship with Masakowski had ended, Remler set her sights on New York. There, she became a first-call musician, and worked with Nancy Wilson, Astrud Gilberto. She also began her contract with Concord, and throughout 1981-1988 she released 6 records.
However, a string of drug use and a failed marriage threatened to derail her success during this time. After her marriage she admitted, "I tried to destroy myself as fast as I could".
Her drug problem intensified, and magnified her anxiety about working in a male-dominated field. One musician recalls her being so nervous about recording a solo that she overdubbed it after the fact, without the rest of the band present.
In 1986, Remler gave up the New York life and moved to Pittsburgh where she became and artist-in-residence at the university. She also studied with renowned trombonist and arranger Bob Brookmeyer during this time.
Friends of Remler were optimistic about her rehabilitation and return to form. However, their greatest fears were realized in May 1990, when she died of a heart attack at the age of 32. Her final recording, This Is Me, was released posthumously later that year.
