Blue in Green (song)

"Blue in Green" is the third tune on Miles Davis' 1959 album, Kind of Blue. One of two ballads on the LP (the other being "Flamenco Sketches"), "Blue in Green"'s melody is very modal, incorporating the presence of the dorian, mixolydian, and lydian modes. The first measure is a G minor chord with an added natural 13 (Gm13), which contains an F natural but the modal tonality of the piece is already evident as the opening note of the melody is an E natural, which is the leading tone of the F major scale. The natural 13 of the chord is E natural.

It has long been speculated that pianist Bill Evans wrote "Blue in Green", even though the LP and most jazz fakebooks credit only Davis with its composition. In his autobiography, Davis maintains that he alone composed the songs on Kind of Blue. The version on Evans' trio album Portrait in Jazz, recorded in 1959, credits the tune to 'Davis-Evans'. Earl Zindars, in an interview conducted by Win Hinkle, said that "Blue in Green" was 100-percent written by Bill Evans. In a 1978 radio interview, Evans said that he himself had written the song.

In a recording made in December 1958 or January 1959 for Chet Baker's album Chet (prior to the Kind of Blue sessions), Evans' introduction on the jazz standard "Alone Together" has been directly compared to his playing on "Blue in Green".

Jazz fusion guitarist Lee Ritenour covered the song from his 1990 album "Stolen Moments" and again from his 2005 album "Overtime."

Singer Al Jarreau covered two parts of the song during the final two tracks from the 1992 album, Heaven and Earth.