Norman Granz signed Armstrong to his Verve roster and placed him with label hero Oscar Peterson's trio, augmented by Bellson, for this relaxed, unhurried session first issued on LP. The additional tracks, also by the same personnel and made earlier, appeared originally as Verve EPs. Undoubtedly, 1957 was a momentous year for the 56-year old Satchmo. It encompassed his major Musical Autobiography recordings, the various Ella and Louis sessions, the Porgy and Bess album and sundry other band releases, plus the tyranny of his perpetual round of one-nighters, so he probably relished this chance to sit down with Peterson, his trumpet mostly untouched, taking it relatively easy, his peerless, husky vocals uppermost. Then again, he had had to contend with the furious reaction to his famous protest against the treatment of African-American students seeking to enter the Little Rock Central High School. While Peterson fans saw this combination with Armstrong as a backward step given his usual association with the top modern stars of the day, there's plenty here to applaud nonetheless. A degree of unforced charm, you might say. The majority of the songs chosen were new to Armstrong, moving him well away from the hackneyed repertoire he favoured for the All Stars and part of the session's fascination is to observe him feeling his way through some of these unfamiliar pieces and digging deep vocally. That's not to say that he always sounds totally comfortable with all these songs or that Peterson sometimes pushes him a little too far. Overall, though, this is Armstrong's album, with the Peterson team offering neat routines in support, but little or no solo contributions Still, to hear Armstrong handle ‘Blues In The Night’, complete with its beautifully balanced trumpet solo, is enough to justify Granz's original idea. Worth investigating.