Smith assembled the group after the release of 2012's award-winning oratorio Ten Freedom Summers and 2013's equally ambitious Occupy the World. In 2014 they recorded Great Lakes Suites, comprising six compositions, one for each of the Great Lakes and another for Lake Saint Clair. Given its members' other commitments, they were unable to tour the work and Smith followed with the multi-disc, six composition work America's National Parks (composed between 2010 and 2012 and released in 2016).
In late 2014, inspired by Don Cherry's 1966 album Symphony for Improvisers, a symphony for jazz sextet, Smith began composing a series of thematically linked works "...intended to illustrate and preserve the powerfully unique contribution that the Midwesterners made in helping to shape the American society." He and the band entered a New York City recording studio in March 2015 with engineers Robert Musso and Thom Beemer. They recorded "Gold Symphony," "Diamond Symphony," and "Pearl Symphony," before resuming their busy professional lives. In the interim, Smith composed a fourth symphony and reassembled the group on June 1, 2018 at an NPR studio in the Catskills with alto and soprano saxophonist Jonathon Haffner replacing the otherwise occupied Threadgill and engineer Scott Petito. The fourth work, "Sapphire Symphony," completed Smith's cycle. The four-disc The Chicago Symphonies was released in November 2021 by Tum as part of the label's year-long celebration of Smith's 80th birthday resulting in the three-disc solo outing Trumpet, the trio offerings Sacred Ceremonies with bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Milford Graves, and Love Sonnett for Billie Holiday with DeJohnette and pianist Vijay Iyer. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi