More Amor: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery

It is important to note that this idea originated in 2004 as a concert at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. That it grew into a successfully realized album project is the result of a concerted effort among a stylistic musician, an innovative bandleader, a dedicated artistic organization, and the community that supports them.

The ten tracks here also tell a deeper story than the glorification of a musician and his time. This music represents a chapter in the history of Jazz when a fracture of the Young Lions' period of the 1980's begot the modern repertory orchestra movement. That movement was fueled by the founding of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in 1988, now directed by Wynton Marsalis and renamed the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Jeff Lindberg, conductor and co-founder of the CJO, has always been a visionary. He and his late musical partner, trumpeter Steve Jensen, created the Jazz Members Big Band in 1978. The following year, the JMBB became the very first act to play at the very first Chicago Jazz Festival. After a number of albums on the Sea Breeze Records label in the 1980s and after Jensen's death in 1997, the band was renamed and Lindberg became became Artistic Director of the not-for-profit Chicago Jazz Orchestra Association.

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Supported by a staff and a board of directors, Lindberg was able to concentrate on the music, and the CJO thrived. Over the decades, national and local jazz orchestras have come and gone, from the high-profile but now defunct Carnegie Hall Jazz Band to the recently formed eponymous big bands in Las Vegas and Saskatoon. Over the years, the CJO has grown and expanded its library with charts and renowned guests ranging from Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder to local Chicago heroes Kurt Elling and Oscar Brown Jr.

Lindberg, together with his staff and board of directors, has kept the CJO thriving and relevant with regular performances and album releases. Recent recordings include collaborations with arrangers Charley Harrison and Tom Garling, and vocalist Cyrille Aimée, and a live recording at the Evanston venue, SPACE.

Already lionized as the oldest continuously operating jazz orchestra in the Windy City's storied musical history, the sonically pleasing More Amor should solidity the Chicago Jazz Orchestra's standing as one of the most important civic jazz organizations in the United States.

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Mark Ruffin, 2025

Program Director, Real Jazz/Sirius XM

Author: Bebop Fairy Tales: An Historical Fiction Trilogy on Jazz, Intolerance and Baseball