Louis Armstrong’s One Night In Highland Park: Live! captures Satchmo and His All Stars in a previously unreleased 1957 concert, preserved for nearly seventy years.
A high school stage manager helped preserve a night of Louis Armstrong’s musical history. Nearly seventy years later, One Night In Highland Park: Live! brings that previously unreleased performance to listeners, capturing Armstrong and His All Stars at an Illinois benefit concert in 1957. What began as a local fundraiser now offers another opportunity to hear one of jazz’s defining figures at work.
Armstrong performed before 1,200 people at Highland Park High School on March 19, raising money for the Highland Park Reform Temple. He arrived riding the success of “Mack the Knife,” his collaboration with Ella Fitzgerald on Ella And Louis, and his appearance in High Society. Two days earlier, he had played the Chicago Opera House, but school auditoriums remained part of his demanding touring schedule. Reaching people mattered, wherever the stage happened to be.
Student stage manager Joel Goldstein recorded the concert and kept the tape for decades. His decision preserved a performance that Armstrong biographer Ricky Riccardi describes as “sensational, one of his best.” This new release gives that privately held recording its first public album release.
The twelve-song program offers a broad introduction to Armstrong’s repertoire. “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South” opens the set, with “Indiana,” “The Gypsy,” and the extended instrumental “Ole Miss” following. “High Society Calypso” connects the evening to his recent movie work, while “Blueberry Hill” and “Mack the Knife” share space with “Tin Roof Blues” and “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It.” “Tiger Rag,” “When the Saints Go Marching In,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” complete the program. Familiar songs become the framework for an evening that brings several chapters of Armstrong’s career together.
Alongside Armstrong are trombonist Trummy Young, clarinetist Edmond Hall, pianist Billy Kyle, bassist Squire Gersh, and drummer Barrett Deems. Kevin Reeves transferred, mixed, and mastered the recording, with Riccardi contributing liner notes. Their work brings a long-preserved tape back into circulation, allowing an audience far beyond that Illinois auditorium to share in the night.