“Blue in Green” appears on Miles Davis’s 1959 album Kind of Blue. It’s credited to Davis, though pianist Bill Evans said he wrote it, and it’s widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and mysterious ballads in jazz. Its short, circular form and haunting harmony create a dreamlike atmosphere.
The form is just 10 bars, centered on D minor, and it loops continuously. The chords move through minor and major seventh sounds, dominant chords with altered tensions, and a minor ii-V, before circling back. Because the form is so short and unusual, the music feels like it never quite starts or ends.
For improvisation, think about color and voice leading. Use D Dorian or D melodic minor over the minor chords, Lydian over the major seventh chords and altered sounds over the dominants. Play slowly and sparsely; Miles and Coltrane both play with restraint on the original. Bill Evans’s introduction and voicings are worth studying in detail.
Practice with a slow play-along, counting the 10-bar form carefully. Pianists should learn Evans’s voicings. Horn players should focus on long tones and soft dynamics.
Getting the most from the Blue in Green Lead Sheet PDF: start by reading the chord symbols without your instrument and humming the roots. Then circle any chord you can’t yet voice or arpeggiate, and make those your warm-up for the week before you play the whole form.
Using the Blue in Green Lead Sheet PDF on gigs: keep a concert-pitch copy and a copy in your instrument’s key, label the intro and ending on the page, and note the tempo and feel the band usually plays. Small notes like these keep you calm when a tune gets called on the spot.
Is it hard to play? The form is short, but the harmony and mood make it intermediate. Recordings to study: Kind of Blue and Bill Evans’s trio versions. Learn more about the composer credit on Bill Evans’s Wikipedia page, and find more modal ballads on Minedit.