More Amor - A Tribute To Wes Montgomery Chicago Jazz Orchestra

• 1 Road Song 05:55
• 2 What The World Needs Now Is Love 05:51
• 3 Four On Six 05:19
• 4 West Coast Blues 07:46
• 5 Somewhere 06:13
• 6 More, More, Amor 04:11
• 7 Fried Pies 06:41
• 8 Baubles, Bangles And Beads 04:59
• 9 Dreamsville 05:14
• 10 Boss City 04:10
• Total Runtime 56:19

Info zu More Amor - A Tribute To Wes Montgomery

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.”

Bobby Broom, guitar
Chicago Jazz Orchestra

Bobby Broom
Guitar great Bobby Broom knows exactly when he first fell in love with the jazz organ. The magic moment came at age 10 when he put on one of the albums his father had brought home, Charles Earland’s Black Talk! Young Bobby didn’t know or care much about jazz yet. “I was just into music,” he says. But after playing the “Mighty Burner’s” now-classic 1969 album, he was sold.

“Something about that record captivated me from the start, the feeling, it was just like that”, says Broom. “It had ‘The Age of Aquarius’ and ‘More Today Than Yesterday,’ songs I knew from the radio. It made me happy. It made me want to dance. And it made me want to listen. I played that album every day, multiple times a day. It completely enthralled me.”

When Earland moved to Chicago in the late ’80s for a successful comeback, there was no doubt in Broom’s mind who his guitarist had to be. “I thought, this is my gig, obviously, this is my gig,” says the guitarist, laughing. “There’s no way he moves to Chicago and I’m here and I’m not going to play with him! It was the thing doing its thing!”

As documented on Earland albums including Front Burner and Third Degree Burn, the dream gig became a reality, and Broom went on to play and/or record with other Hammond B-3 masters including Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Melvin Rhyne and, once, the king of them all, Jimmy Smith. But he has made his strongest mark in this vein with his own organ groups—first the Deep Blue Organ Trio, a Chicago collective featuring Chris Foreman that lasted 25 years, and its ongoing successor, the Bobby Broom Organi-Sation, featuring B-3 whiz Ben Paterson.

On the Organi-Sation’s terrific new live album, Jamalot, Broom flashes back as ever to Earland’s treatment of pop hits to reach a wider audience. Half of the album, recorded during his trio’s 2014 tour with Steely Dan, consists of tunes that the legendary pop band’s followers would be familiar with, including Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun,” the Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road,” and Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla”—all of which he had previously recorded.

The other songs on Jamalot, recorded in 2019 at Joe and Wayne Segal’s Jazz Showcase in Chicago, address earlier eras of the popular song movement via “Tennessee Waltz,” Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” Kurt Weill’s “Speak Low,” and Tadd Dameron’s “Tadd’s Delight.” Different audiences with different expectations but connected by a love of classic melodies.

Broom, who had previously opened for Steely Dan with the Deep Blue Organ Trio, initially turned down the invitation to tour with them again. Following the dissolution of the DBOT, he was between organ groups and was uncomfortable with “wrangling” a Hammond player he didn’t know musically or personally.

Told of his decision, one of his regular drummers, Makaya McCraven, now a mega-force incontemporary music, got in his ear. “He said, ‘What?What? What are you doing? You can’t not do this, man, ”Broom says with a laugh. Who turns down an opportunity to go on the road withlegends? With McCraven’s help, Broom spun through their lists looking for a worthy candidate.

When Paterson’s name came up, it stuck. Broom had never worked with the Philadelphia native,but he had heard him a few times (Paterson was a longtime regular in Chicago tenor great VonFreeman’s band) and liked what he heard. As he had done in drafting key boardist Justin Dillard for his2022 album, Keyed Up, the guitarist went with his hunch. The timing was perfect. Paterson, who had moved to New York, was returning to the Windy City for a gig and would be able to rehearse with the new trio. McCraven and Kobie Watkins, a long time musical partner of Broom’s, would alternate on drums (depending on the needs of their pregnant wives).

“Ben was a perfect fit for me, exactly what I was looking for in a new organ trio, which was freedom, ”says Broom. “He has a background in jazz organ tradition, but his sensibility also leans toward pop music, popular song, from past eras, the Great American Songbook as well as rhythm and blues and soul music. His melodic sense is really personal. As much as I love the blues, I don’t want to just hear someone play bluesand that’s it. Ben plays melodies.”

“Performing with Bobby is always an exciting proposition, ”says Paterson.“He always puts his whole self fully behind every tune and every note. He never dials it in or simply plays something. Sitting between Bobby’s lead and Kobie or Makaya’s incredible groove, at the heart of the band, is one of my absolute favorite places to be.”

Bobby Broom was born in Harlem, New York, on January 18, 1961, and raised on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He had what he calls “intimate relationships” with the tunes that came on his radio. “When my favorite songs came on, they were like friends knocking on my door,” he says. He aspired to one day play some of those great songs, but not until he was ready.

He began studying the guitar at age 12,concentrating on jazz under the aegis of Harlem-based guitar instructor Jimmy Carter. A 16-year-old prodigy at the High School of Music and Art(now known as the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts),Broom played in the jazz ensemble and was awarded for Outstanding Jazz Improvisation during his senior year.

Chaperoned by Weldon Irvine (an early mentor of his, composer for Freddie Hubbard and Horace Silver, bandleader for Nina Simone, and lyricist of “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”),the 16-year-old Broom found himself in an East Side NYC jazz club for the purpose of being taught to sit in. That lesson became a reality for Broom when Al Haig, pianist for Charlie Parker, invited him to join in for a couple of tunes. Impressed by the youngster’s playing, Haig offered him the chance to play with him at Gregory’s on the Upper East Side whenever he wanted. Broom ended up playing two or three times a week there, and also got to play, with great awe, with another notable Bird keyboardist, Walter Bishop, Jr.

The Chicago Jazz Orchestra is Chicago
oldest continuously operating professional jazz orchestra. Founded in 1978 by Jeff Lindberg and the late Steve Jensen, the Jazz Members Big Band became the Chicago Jazz Orchestra Association in 1999.

In the spring semester of 1978, the University of Illinois Jazz Band hit a performance level that the group had not achieved in years. The band was filled with musicians who had been attracted to the University’s jazz program because of the legendary band of the late 60s and early 70s. The spirit of the ’78 band was so positive that a number of the musicians, including trumpeter Steve Jensen and trombonist Jeff Lindberg, wanted to keep it going after the school year concluded, albeit in Chicago. Jensen moved to the North Side of Chicago to establish a career as a free-lance trumpet player; Lindberg moved to the southern suburb of Flossmoor to take a part-time teaching position at Homewood-Flossmoor High School.

In May, 1978, the University of Illinois Jazz Band recorded a 23-minute set in the studios of WCIA-TV in Champaign for a small assembled audience of six people. The program was broadcast locally as "The Saturday Report." ​

In 2019, the complete video was uploaded to YouTube. (at right) In it, the band performs "Down for Double," "Girl Talk," "19 Before Soc's Last Cup," and "Closeout." The Band's director, John Garvey, also gives a prophetic interview about the future of his young players.

In September of 1978, Jensen and Lindberg organized a band that rehearsed for the first time at Redford’s, a club located on Halsted Street on the north side of Chicago. Its membership included musicians who had recently moved to Chicago from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, musicians from U of I who had previously relocated to the Windy City, and a few non-U of I musicians. The owner of Redford’s allowed the group to rehearse there because the University Band had performed at Redford’s the previous May and sold the place out. The owner had visions of this new band doing the same, but it was not meant to be. The rehearsal went well, and a name for the band––Jazz Members Big Band––was selected by trumpeter Ric Bendel. Nevertheless, the owner of Redford’s lost interest and there was no subsequent rehearsal or performance at that club.

Steve Jensen made a few inquiries around the North Side and found a place called Gaspar’s (now Schuba’s) on the corner of Belmont and Southport Avenues. The original structure of Gaspar’s was an old German bar with a separate dance hall behind the bar area. Gaspar’s owner was willing to let the group play in the dance hall on Sunday evenings for the door; thus, the Jazz Members Big Band’s premiere performance was Sunday, October 29, 1978, at Gaspar’s. The cover charge was probably less than $5.00.

The Jazz Members Big Band could not have picked a worse time to organize. The first few months of their weekly engagement went fairly well, but the winter of 1978-79 was one of the worst in Chicago’s history. Heavy snowstorms and blizzards pummeled the Windy City week after week, and the Jazz Members Big Band struggled even to hold performances. In those days, the band played three 50-minute sets on Sunday nights; during the winter of 1978-79, the audience often numbered less than 20 for the entire evening. But Steve and Jeff persevered, and somehow the band made it through the winter. Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic’s political career did not survive that horrible winter, but the Jazz Members Big Band, against all odds, did.

The spring of 1979 brought renewal and hope. Audience numbers picked up, and the band’s sound improved because its personnel became more stable. Steve and Jeff began to invite special guest performers to join them for performances at Gaspar’s, which attracted even bigger crowds and expanded the band’s repertoire. Guest artists during this period included drummer Barrett Deems, saxophonist Eric Schneider (a U of I Jazz Band alum who had joined Earl Hines’s band and later the Count Basie Orchestra after leaving Urbana-Champaign), tenor saxophonist Johnny Board, trumpeter Art Hoyle, and others. Even John Campbell, the JMBB’s original pianist who had left early on to join Clark Terry and later Mel Tormé, would return whenever possible to play with the group.

The Jazz Members Big Band began to attract the attention of members of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, a not-for-profit organization that in 1979 was planning for an annual jazz festival to be presented at the relatively new Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park. JIC members Richard Wang, Penny Tyler, and Art Hoyle were impressed enough with the Jazz Members Big Band to invite the group to be the first band on the first night of what was to become the annual Chicago Jazz Festival. Thus, at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 29, 1979, the First Annual Chicago Jazz Festival was launched by a virtually unknown Chicago group: the Jazz Members Big Band.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet