Miles Davis, credited music · Bill Evans, said he wrote it · Introduced on the album Kind of Blue, 1959
Blue in Green
Blue in Green is a ballad in an unusual ten-bar form that circles back on itself. Players value how little it needs: Gary Burton called it a memorable tune made from almost nothing. You hear it on Kind of Blue, in Bill Evans's trios, and in many vocal and guitar versions.
▶ Plays the whole path in order, one recording after another.
- 1 Learn the song Miles Davis✓
- 2 Hear Evans's own trio Bill Evans Trio✓
- 3 Hear it live Bill Evans Trio✓
- 4 Hear it sung Cassandra Wilson✓
- 5 Hear it with a horn Charlie Haden Quartet West✓
- 6 Hear it on solo guitar John McLaughlin✓
- 7 Another piano trio Fred Hersch with Charlie Haden and Joey Baron✓
- 8 Hear a modern trio Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison✓
How the tune works
One ten-bar strain, played over and over. The chords start on G minor, the fourth step of D minor, and reach D minor in bar 3. Bars 4 and 5 move through C minor and F7 to B♭ major. Bars 6 and 7 return to D minor. Bars 8 and 9 go through E7 to A minor, and bar 10 lands on D minor 7, but the form wraps straight back to G minor, so the ear never hears a full stop. Bill Evans's liner note calls it a 10-measure circular form. On Kind of Blue, a four-bar piano introduction comes first.
Read each line as four bars; the last line has the final two. Two chords in one bar share it equally. A key tag marks the first bar where a new key area arrives. The ten bars repeat with no break, and bar 10 leads straight back to bar 1.
Source is the published lead sheet printed as Example 1 in Henry Martin's part of the Journal of Jazz Studies roundtable on Blue in Green (2016). It is written in D minor, so no transposition was needed. Martin says he used the published version because Davis plays the tune freely. The sheet writes the second chord of bar 3 as D♭7♯5(♯9) and bar 7 as D minor with a major seventh. The opening chord is the least settled: the lead sheet has G minor 13, and players and charts also use G minor 7, G minor 6 and B♭maj7♯11, with Evans's trio versions differing from Davis's on that chord. On the Kind of Blue recording, a four-bar piano introduction comes before the first chorus, and Larson says its chords follow bars 3 to 10 of the head in reduced form.
Listen in this order
Play all 8 on YouTube ↗The path starts with the Kind of Blue recording, then hears Bill Evans play the tune with his own trio in 1959 and 1967. The last five steps add a vocal, a tenor saxophone quartet, a solo guitar, another piano trio and a modern trio with electric bass.
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Step 1 · Learn the song Now playing
Miles Davis 1959
Kind of Blue
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Evans opens with a four-bar introduction, then Davis plays the theme with a mute. Count ten bars: the form wraps straight back to its start. The chords change faster under the Evans and Coltrane solos than under Davis's opening chorus.
- Try this
- Play the chords from the chart below at a slow tempo, one chord per bar except bars 3 and 4, which have two. Count the ten bars before you start again. For a smaller version, loop only bars 1 to 5.
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Step 2 · Hear Evans's own trio Now playing
Bill Evans Trio 1959
Portrait in Jazz
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- The tune is now played by a piano trio with no horns: piano, bass and drums. Count ten bars at a time to hear where each chorus starts. Takes 1 and 2 are later-issued alternates; this link is take 3.
- Try this
- Play the chart on piano or guitar, bars 1 to 5 and then bars 6 to 10, and join the two halves. If ten bars at once is too much, loop bars 6 to 10 first.
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Step 3 · Hear it live Now playing
Bill Evans Trio 1967
“Blue In Green (Live May 19, 1967)”, The Secret Sessions: Recorded at the Village Vanguard 1966-1975
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- Listen for
- Same pianist, now live in a club with Eddie Gomez on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The take runs 3:55, about a minute and a half shorter than Portrait in Jazz, so count how many ten-bar choruses fit.
- Try this
- Play the chart three times in a row without stopping. Bar 10 leads straight back into bar 1, so keep the pulse steady across the repeat.
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Step 4 · Hear it sung Now playing
Cassandra Wilson 1985
Point of View
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- Listen for
- A voice carries the tune with Wilson's own words. Follow the vocal line through each ten-bar pass and listen for where one pass ends and the next begins.
- Try this
- Sing or hum the tune you know along with the recording, and tap the first beat of each ten-bar pass. If that is too much, tap only the start of each pass.
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Step 5 · Hear it with a horn Now playing
Charlie Haden Quartet West 1988
In Angel City
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Ernie Watts's tenor saxophone is the featured horn, with piano, bass and drums behind him. At 7:21 the track has room for many ten-bar choruses, so count them.
- Try this
- Play the chart's chords one per bar, then add the bass: play only the root of each chord on the lowest notes you can reach.
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Step 6 · Hear it on solo guitar Now playing
John McLaughlin 1971
My Goal's Beyond
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- The track is acoustic guitar played by McLaughlin, recorded in layers, and it lasts only 2:38. Follow the ten-bar form by listening to the guitar chords.
- Try this
- Play the chart's chords on guitar, one per bar except bars 3 and 4, at a slow tempo. Keep each chord ringing until the next bar.
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Step 7 · Another piano trio Now playing
Fred Hersch with Charlie Haden and Joey Baron 1986
Sarabande
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Hersch uses a lot of pedal, so the sound rolls in and pulls back like waves. Compare this trio with Evans's: the bass is Charlie Haden and the drums are Joey Baron.
- Try this
- Play the chart's chords on piano with the sustain pedal, changing the pedal on each new chord so one chord rings into the next. For a smaller version, do it for bars 1 to 5 only.
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Step 8 · Hear a modern trio Now playing
Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison 2015
In Movement
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- The lineup is saxophone, electric bass with electronics, and drums. Count the ten-bar form and listen for how it holds up with that lineup.
- Try this
- Play the chart's chords on an instrument or sound other than a piano, such as an electric guitar or a keyboard pad, and hold each chord for its full bar.
More great versions
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Bill Evans Trio 1966
“Blue In Green (Live March 1966)”, The Secret Sessions: Recorded at the Village Vanguard 1966-1975
The same club the year before the 1967 set, with Teddy Kotick on bass and Arnie Wise on drums.
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Gary Burton and Stéphane Grappelli 1969
Paris Encounter
A violin and vibraphone quartet recorded in Paris about ten years after Kind of Blue.
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Bill Evans Trio 1974
“Blue In Green”, Blue in Green: The Concert in Canada
A live set from Canada with Eddie Gomez and Marty Morell.
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Ralph Towner and Gary Burton 1985
Slide Show
A duo of guitar and vibraphone on ECM, with no bass or drums.
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Pat Martino 2001
“Blue in Green (Live)”, Live at Yoshi's
A guitar and organ trio, live in Oakland, at more than seven minutes.
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Kenny Burrell 2002
“Blue In Green”, Blue Muse
A guitar ballad from Burrell's Blue Muse session, whose band includes saxophone and flute.
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Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra 2011
“Blue in Green (Live)”, Time/Life
A big band arranged and conducted by Carla Bley, recorded live in Belgium and issued in 2016.