A Foggy Day

The magic of A Foggy Day lies in how Ella and Armstrong transform a lyric that, in other voices, might sound melancholic, into something light and even playful. It's not just the contrast between their registers—her with that crystalline precision, him with that raspy, warm timbre—but how the swing of the Oscar Peterson Quartet gives it the air of a stroll through a foggy city, without the lyric losing its essence. The song isn't about just any gray day: it's an invitation to enjoy even when the weather turns difficult, and they convey that with the kind of camaraderie only those who have sung together for decades can muster.

Recorded in August 1956 at the newly opened Capitol Studios in Hollywood, A Foggy Day is part of a trio of albums that Norman Granz—the mastermind behind Verve Records—put together to bring Ella and Armstrong into the studio. The three records—Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again, and Porgy and Bess—share more than just a name: they were immediate hits and marked an era when vocal jazz had no clear boundaries between the commercial and the artistic. A Foggy Day lasts 4:33, but in those minutes, years of experience fit: from the time when Armstrong was already a legend to when Ella was solidifying her place as the voice that could sing any song and make it her own.