Blue in Green on Loop

Miles Davis recorded “Blue in Green” in 1959 for Kind of Blue. The original runs five and a half minutes. Someone who goes by READ TO THIS on YouTube stretched it to two hours, and that version has become the sound of most of my writing this year.

Bill Evans' piano opens with a chord that feels like someone taking a slow breath before they start a hard conversation. Then Miles comes in, muted, barely pushing any air. Nothing about it is background. It isn’t ambient sound. It’s music just patient enough to let you think.

What I like about the two-hour version is that it removes the moment where a song ends. You sit down, you press play, and, at least for me, the focus comes. An hour later, you look up, and you’ve written something.

If you try it, do me a favor. Don’t have it on while you answer emails. Save it for the kind of work that actually requires you to be alone with a sentence.