Before reading any further, please listen to as much of Blue in Green by Miles Davis as it takes for you to be able to answer these questions:
Have you heard this before?
Do you own the album? If so, how long?
What one word describes this piece to you?
On this cut, what do your think of:
–1) the trumpet?
–2) the piano?
–3) the sax?
If you own the album, what’s your favorite cut on it?
This thread is a follow-up of sorts from Kind of Blue: 50 Years Ago Today in which I said I believe this piece was written by Bill Evans even though Miles has the copyright on it. Who do think really wrote it? Do you have anything more than a gut hunch to go by?
Please add any comments or additonal questions you think of when hearing this piece.
According to Evans, quoted in the Hal Leonard transcription book of the album, Miles “composed” the piece by writing out the first two chords (Gm7 to A7#5), handing this to Evans, and asking him, “What would you do with that?”
I’ve heard that as well. Miles wasn’t really a much of a prescriptivist as a session or bandleader - more of a sketches and doodles kind of a guy. He wrote a lot of critical material, to be sure, but in the sense of a head chart…melody and changes, and being very detailed in telling the other players how he envisioned the scope of their parts. The musicians themselves brought the music to life however, and that album wouldn’t be the same without them.
Miles was an absolutely stickler in the studio though, and would often be exacting insofar as telling the players what he liked or didn’t like about their part. So he does deserve credit, but it was often the case that he used to status as leader to take a little extra off the top. Not uncommon in those days, however and Miles in particular was very, very careful with his money.
Most of this I learned from his autobiography but also some various jazz history texts.
As far as the piece itself, it sounds like a Bill Evans piece, compositionally, but that could also just be that his signature piano style is so prevalent throughout.
Thanks. I just reread my post and now it seems snarky, which was not my intention. I love jazz, honestly. But it’s one of the things I don’t like to over-analyze, as it seems to take away some of the magic. I don’t pretend to know what the hell they’re all doing, just that when it’s good, it’s joyously miraculous. Noodle on, bruddah.
Thanks for that. Earlier today I heard/saw a video of Bill Evans doing Invitation and I wanted to get a YouTube version of that to ask these same questions about. But the versions on YouTube were second rate to Evans’s, so I shelved the idea until the same channel had Blue in Green and I decided to give it a whirl.
Both tunes give me a strong feeling, and both performances are singular. I was just curious what response others may have to them.
Okay - how about this: listen to Miles. He is one of the most arrogant, ego-forward players than you could ever hope to imagine. And yet with this song, along with the rest of Kind of Blue and other albums from this late-50’s era, he is totally stripped down. Uses a mute to choke down his tone and strip it of brassiness. He chooses to play without vibrato - I mean jeez, he sounds like a gentle school girl with his tone.
But - then you listen - he never wavers. The strength within that weak-ass tone is clear. So on one hand it floats amonsgt Evans’ chords - could there be a more ethereal-yet-complex player? - but the strength of timbre, along with interesting melody - locks it in. It is the ultimate less-is-more ballsy move. Jeez, I couldn’t imagine being a girl and trying to resist that…
If anybody wants to hear Bill Evans’s version of the controversy, it’s among the amazing music at The Legendary Bill Evans On Piano Jazz and part of a very revealing insight into his music – if you have an hour to spend.
I’ve heard several versions of Miles’s claim, one of them just recently, but I haven’t found the audio for it yet.
The thing I remember, whether a Miles quote or somebody else’s paraphrase/version, is that when Miles was a kid and was visiting an aunt (or some relative) who lived out in the country, he and a cousin or friend were walking to the relative’s house one dark night after church meeting and as they walked along, the fading sounds of the choir were just barely audible. Miles is said to have commented to the kid with him, “That must be where the blues come from.” His efforts in the recording of BIG were to reproduce not just the sound but also the feel of that night in the country long ago.
As I say, that may be way off from what was actually said, but it’s how I remember it. If I can locate the audio, I’ll post it.
Independent of the authorship, I regard Blue in Green as one of the finest jazz compositions, even if only the first two chords were “composed.”
Apparently, I’m not alone in that reverence of it. There’s no telling how many respectful versions of it there are. And I have yet to hear a version that doesn’t take the languid and sensitive approach to it.
The fact that it’s hardly more then a descending scale for half the melody is a tribute to the idea that Miles personified: simplicity with feeling.
Well, **Kind of Blue **has been described as the closest thing to a heroin trip that doesn’t involve actually doing the drug. I don’t believe Miles was using at the time, but don’t quote me on that. Regardless, it has a languid confidence about it - I have heard that one’s first heroin trip - the one you keep chasing forever after - is not a trip, per se, but a feeling of completeness and being at your peak, tapped into your creative well fully. Given the open, breathy nature of the modal forms Davis tapped for this, and Evans chords’ which suggest far more space than they actually occupy - and laying on top of that a variety of masterful leads from Miles’ less-is-more Billie Holiday tone to Coltrane’s “phrase against” note choices (and Adderly in the middle) you get a wonderful world to explore, supremely delivered. So I’ll go with that…well, two words: languid confidence…
Quincy Troupe has a 6-and-change minute commentary, and about 2 minutes in has the passage I tried to paraphrase. The 6-minute piece is worth a listen if you’re a fan of Kind of Blue.
