MORE AMOR: A TRIBUTE TO WES MONTGOMERY

Chicago Jazz Orchestra Featuring Bobby Broom. Chicago Jazz Orchestra Records

This 10-song set being released on Friday offers the grace and fluidity that one would have expected from the late jazz titan Wes Montgomery, but with the power and punch of a modern big band sound.

The Chicago Jazz Orchestra has been hailed in the past by none other than the late jazz trumpeter Clark Terry as one of America’s best.

Capturing the essence of Montgomery is, of course, a tall order.

The famed smooth jazz pioneer, who died in 1968 at age 45, was virtually in a class of his own as a guitarist, with a style that influenced the likes of icons such as George Benson.

Bobby Broom, a New York City native who has made Chicago his adopted hometown, does an admirable job of bringing new life to Montgomery’s music.

The album’s concept, believe it or not, goes back 21 years to 2004 when Chicago Jazz Orchestra founder and artistic director Jeff Lindbergh enlisted him to perform Montgomery’s music with the orchestra during a series inside Chicago’s Harold Washington Library Center.

Plans for an album were in the discussion for several years, then hit a snag with the coronavirus pandemic.

There have been other tributes to Montgomery, of course. But he’s a guitarist whose legacy is worth underscoring and keeping alive.

Broom certainly has the credentials, having performed over the years with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, and Stanley Turrentine.

“For me, this project is a dream,” Broom said. “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 project was aided by the vision of three arrangers, starting with “Road Song,” a catchy, innovative piece that was sadly the title track to Montgomery’s final album before his death. It became one of his most recognizable compositions.

One of the pleasant surprises is how Broom and the orchestra perform their sophisticated jazzy version of the Hal David-Burt Bacharach pop classic, “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” It’s a song Montgomery played, but only in small group settings.

There are multiple other highlights before the disc ends with a rousing version of “Boss City,” which Montgomery wrote and had on a 1966 album.

Except for a trumpet solo and rhythm from a couple of Latin percussion instruments, that song is the only one on the album “that’s exactly, or almost exactly, the same as the way Wes Montgomery originally recorded it,” Lindberg said.

First Published March 27, 2025, 11:00 a.m.