Irving Berlin's "Isn't This a Lovely Day?" receives a leisurely treatment on the 1956 Verve album Ella and Louis, with Louis Armstrong contributing a half-chorus trumpet solo over the 32-bar ABAC form at 83 beats per minute in C major. Armstrong's trumpet statement carries the easy, conversational quality that characterized his later work, his phrasing behind and around the beat creating the rhythmic tension that first established swing as a musical concept decades earlier. The song, originally written for the 1935 film Top Hat starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, is given new life through the interplay between Fitzgerald's crystalline vocal and Armstrong's gravel-voiced singing and trumpet commentary. Producer Norman Granz assembled the ideal rhythm section in the Oscar Peterson Quartet, with Peterson on piano, Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on bass, and Buddy Rich on drums. The session, held at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, captured the relaxed atmosphere of two master musicians enjoying each other's company and the luxury of exceptional material. Ella and Louis would become one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, and performances like this one demonstrate why the pairing resonated so deeply with audiences worldwide.
