More Info
In March 1957, Louis Armstrong and his All Stars brought their touring show to Highland Park High School in Illinois for a fundraising concert staffed by the school’s student stage crew. Student stage manager Joel Goldstein recorded the performance and kept the recording for nearly seven decades.
Armstrong arrived following the success of his 1955 single ‘Mack the Knife’, the Ella and Louis album and the film High Society, both released in 1956. Alongside his international travels as America’s ‘Ambassador of Goodwill’, this suburban high school appearance captured his enduring ability to connect with an audience, bringing the energy of his touring show to a local auditorium.
Transferred, mixed and mastered by Kevin Reeves, One Night in Highland Park presents this rediscovered concert with liner notes by Ricky Riccardi, Armstrong’s biographer and Director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum. Both the LP and CD are limited editions.
Tracklist
Side A
1. When It's Sleepy Time Down South
2. (Back Home Again In) Indiana
3. The Gypsy
4. Ole Miss
5. High Society Calypso
Side B
1. Blueberry Hill
2. Tin Roof Blues
3. My Bucket's Got a Hole in It
4. Mack the Knife
5. Tiger Rag
6. When the Saints Go Marching In
7. The Star-Spangled Banner