Bill Evans - 1959
‘Blue in Green’ was first heard on the 1959 Miles Davis album ‘Kind of Blue’. Bill Evans released a trio version soon after on ‘Portrait in Jazz’. The album ‘Kind of Blue’ was the seed for a branch of Jazz that took over the “mainstream”. The popularity of Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and eventually the whole “Berklee” style of Jazz in many ways started here.
it is instructive to look at the piece, at least tacitly, as being in the key of D minor. The piece is intentionally ambiguous harmonically with ever shifting key centres.
The first three bars establish the key of Dm. This is followed by a temporary key centre of Bb. Bars 6 and 7 return to Dm but the Dm sets up a IV – V – I to Am. The Am sets up a II – V – I to Gm which takes us back to the beginning. This circular movement of chords is very audible to the listener. This is in part because of the way Evans seems to unfold the chords over the bar but also because the cycle is 10 bars long rather than the conventional eight or twelve bars.
Another tool Evans employs to achieve that “brooding ambiguity” is little three note chords. Example 2 shows how they can be interpreted in a number of ways. If you are trying to name one of these chords the first clue is, of course, what the bass player is playing but also remember the 3rd and 7th degree of a chord best defines what the chord is.
