Chicago Jazz Orchestra

More Amor: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Label: Chicago Jazz Orchestra Records

More Amor: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery is the latest release from The Chicago Jazz Orchestra (CJO), under the direction of Jeff Lindberg. From “Road Song” to “More, More, Amor” to “Boss City,” the Windy City’s oldest continuously operating jazz orchestra — featuring the phenomenal guitarist Bobby Broom — tips its hat to one of the most unique and pivotal voices jazz guitar has ever known. The 10-track collection is proof that the CJO deserves its reputation as “The best big band in the country,” as proclaimed by the late, great trumpeter and educator, Clark Terry.

“Generations of gifted musicians have honed their skills through the ensemble,” DownBeat has observed. “If you like brassy big band music, you may know — or should get to know — the Chicago Jazz Orchestra,” declared WTTW News, noting their “40 years of bringing a fresh approach to timeless music.” Of the CJO’s album, Burstin’ Out, with vocalist Cyrille Aimée (2013): “The arrangements are picture perfect, and the soloists tell the story with profound musicianship” (Oregon Jazz Scene).

“It was my goal to develop the CJO into the best big band in Chicago,” Lindberg said, “rivaling other great orchestras across the country and the world.” Bobby Broom himself also commands a sizable legacy. The Chicagoan, by way of New York, has performed with Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Stanley Turrentine, and other jazz titans.

“For me, this project is a dream,” Broom says. “I can vividly recall admiring these album covers by Wes, as the music played in my room in my NYC apartment growing up. To be asked and to feel capable of doing this is almost surreal.”

The seed for More Amor: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery was planted way back in 2004. While planning his 2004 concert series, Lindberg enlisted Broom for a performance dedicated to the music of Wes Montgomery. According to Lindberg, “Bobby has the right combination of guitar chops, artistry, and audience appeal. He reads audiences very well — he knows what people will be attracted to — so the result is something that’s very special and relatable, musically and artistically.”

The concert came to pass as part of the CJO’s 2004 series at Chicago’s Harold Washington Library Center. In the years following, a recording was proposed, delayed by COVID, and did not materialize — until now.

In 2024, when it was time to commit More Amor to tape at Philharmonic Studios in Vernon Hills, Illinois, Lindberg and Broom agreed they should use not one arranger, but three: Alex Brown, Tom Garling, and Charley Harrison. This mirrors Montgomery’s final years in which he recorded with the commercially savvy producer Creed Taylor, who hired cream-of-the-crop orchestrators like Oliver Nelson, Don Sebesky, and Johnny Pate. In truth, not three but five orchestrators were required to achieve the orchestral diversity contained in this one album: Brown, Garling, and Harrison, as well as Oliver Nelson and Don Sebesky in two works transcribed by Lindberg. The resulting tonal palette is varied and will appeal to a wide audience: six of the ten tracks involve strings, and four are arranged with straightforward big band instrumentation. 

More Amor starts its engines with the Harrison-arranged “Road Song” — the title track to Montgomery’s final album before his death in 1968 and one of his most recognizable compositions. “You’ve got to hook ’em,” Broom says, “because the rest of the record does not falter.”

Montgomery only played “What the World Needs Now is Love” in a small group setting; dig his version on 1966’s Tequila with vibraphonist George Devens, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Grady Tate. Here, pairing Broom’s singing guitar with sumptuous strings and horns, the Burt Bacharach-Hal David classic takes on new dimensions. 

Garling arranged “Four on Six,” Montgomery’s original from 1960’s indispensable The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery. “Tom has a very distinctive writing style, which matched up to this tune wonderfully,” Lindberg says. “It begins with an odd meter, then goes into a swing 4/4, and it just swings from top to bottom.” As on that Montgomery record, “Four on Six” slides into the straight-ahead “West Coast Blues,” a Garling arrangement as well.

1963’s Fusion! Wes Montgomery with Strings is represented by the Bernstein staple “Somewhere,” newly-arranged by Alex Brown for this album. “It’s almost epic. At points — especially the end — I feel like I’m watching a Roman Empire scene in a movie.” 

Of Sol Lake’s “More, More, Amor,” from Montgomery’s 1967 album California Dreaming: “My intention was not to do all of the obvious choices, but to do songs that captivated me, for whatever reason,” Broom says, “and that was one of them.” Says Lindberg: “I thought that by adding strings, it would give the arrangement a little bit of a warmer sound. I was very happy with the result.”

“Fried Pies,” a Montgomery original, was first recorded on the 1963 album, Boss Guitar, with organist Melvin Rhyne and drummer Jimmy Cobb. “Wes left a bunch of classics that we still play today as jazz standards,” Broom says. “ ‘Fried Pies’ is one of those.”

Robert Wright and George Forrest wrote “Baubles, Bangles, and Beads” for the 1953 musical Kismet. Montgomery recorded a lush, orchestral rendition on Fusion!. “Charley Harrison really captures the flavor of the original recording,” Lindberg says. “It’s a little bit nostalgic, but the nostalgia isn’t gratuitous here; it works because the artistry is solid.”

Brown arranged the penultimate track, Henry Mancini’s “Dreamsville,” which Montgomery recorded on Guitar on the Go (1966). The original recording was for organ trio; Brown arranged it for full studio orchestra, with strings, for this album.

More Amor concludes with Montgomery’s original tune, “Boss City” — which Broom sees as a bookend with “Road Song,” vibe- and tempo-wise. (Montgomery included it on 1966’s Goin’ Out of My Head.) “It’s the only cut on this album that’s exactly, or almost exactly, the same as the way Wes Montgomery originally recorded it,” Lindberg says. “We added a trumpet solo, played brilliantly by Victor Garcia, and a couple of Latin percussion instruments, but it is the definitive Oliver Nelson arrangement of the Wes Montgomery tune.”

Overall, Lindberg was bowled over by the experience of making More Amor: “I was so pleased with the level of playing by the orchestra — particularly the many soloists, as well as the rhythm section: pianist Dan Trudell, bassist Dennis Carroll, and drummer Kobie Watkins. They set a really strong, swinging beat, inspiring everyone to play at the highest level.”

Broom agrees: “Every solo is stunning, and holds up the banner for who we are. This is what we do. This is us in Chicago right now.”