Moon Mist is an instrumental jazz ballad with no lyrics, composed by Mercer Ellington (1919-1996). He wrote it in 1941-42, during the ASCAP strike that kept Duke Ellington's songs off the radio, so the band played pieces by Mercer and Billy Strayhorn instead. Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra recorded it on 21 January 1942, and the recording was released on 10 April 1942 as a 78 rpm single, backed with "The C Jam Blues". Many artists have recorded it since, including the Ike Carpenter Orchestra in 1949, the Claude Bolling Big Band in 1999 and Scott Hamilton in 2018. It appears on later albums such as the Blanton-Webster Band reissues and Studio Sessions 1956 and 1957-67, and the Carnegie Hall Concerts of January 1943 include a performance of it. Mercer Ellington's other standards include "Things Ain't What They Used to Be", "Jumpin' Punkins" and "Blue Serge".
