Moonlight in Vermont

The story behind

Moonlight in Vermont is one of those songs that captivates you from the first chords. It's not just Ella Fitzgerald's voice gliding between notes with that precision that seems impossible, nor the accompaniment of the Oscar Peterson Quartet setting the rhythm with restrained elegance. It's the way both manage to turn a theme that could sound cliché—a soft waltz about a snowy landscape—into something intimate and alive. Fitzgerald sings as if each word were a caress, and Armstrong, with his trumpet or deep voice, responds as if he were there, beside her, under the same moon that illuminates Vermont.