A Night in Tunisia
A Night in Tunisia is a jazz standard, written in 1942 by Dizzy Gillespie, while he was a member of the band by Earl Hines.
Composition
The core of the composition is maintained in the AABA scheme and includes 32 bars, it sets a auskomponiertes Interlude to 16 bars. It is played in medium to fast pace. The title alludes to the "exotic" characteristics of the piece: In particular, the A- parts using musical devices, their association content to American audiences of the 1940s was already " oriental " as familiar. Melodies formed from the harmonic minor scale are connotes accordingly to date, and the time was just generally is one borrowed from the Afro-Cuban music, as in the accompaniment, especially the bass figure significantly, were by the general public as " strange ".
During the entire A- side is highlighted with the illustrated bassline, it varies a bar phrase three times and concludes with a fourth. The harmonic scheme is simple: a tritonusvertauschter authentic circuit in minor ( IIb7 - IM6 according Eb7 - Dm6 ) every two bars. The Bridge ( the B section) uses a very popular bebop cadence, the first (after G Minor) (ie F major ) modulated in the subdominant of the main key of D minor and then in the relative major.
Also an integral part of Gillespie's composition is the next to the last A part Interlude. This brings a reef-like melody over another cadence in the relative major, but used the composer at this point accompanying harmonies, through their time for the unusual tone colors and chromatic movements even more abstract acted as the similarly conceived midsection. The Interlude ends at a break, which - depending on interpretation - may be two or four bars long and is to be used as an introduction to his chorus of soloists. Special recognition gained a virtuoso melody line on this point, the Charlie Parker grossed on one ( as a whole rejected by the producers) take and which was published separately later under the title Famous Alto Break.
The piece was initially conceived as an instrumental number, the first big band arrangement of Night in Tunisia took the composer with the band of Boyd Raeburn on. The number was later provided ( by Leo Robin ) with a text and played under the title " Interlude "; under this title it was recorded by Sarah Vaughan, among other things already on December 31, 1944 ( accompanied by Parker and Gillespie ). Gillespie himself always called it " A Night in Tunisia "; his first recording of the song under his name arose in February 1946 with Milt Jackson, who developed an additional reef.
Background
" A Night in Tunisia " (along with " Manteca " ), the theme song of Gillespie 's bebop big band. One of the most famous interpretations comes from Charlie Parker, recorded for the record label Dial, during this recording session was the Famous Alto Break already mentioned. On the album " A Night At Birdland, Volume 1", Art Blakey commented on the title with an invented story of how he was allegedly present when Gillespie the piece on the bottom of a rubbish bin, ("on the bottom of a garbage can " ) composed. Gillespie himself writes in his autobiography that he pushed through improvisations on the piano on a tune with " latin / oriental feeling" out of which inevitably a rhythm deviation from four beat showed that with the influx of Latin American rhythms in the bebop, pronounced around 1945 first in Manteca, was style icon. In the credits, Frank Paparelli is given as author, according to Gillespie, he was responsible only for transcription.
Reception and further recording
Another worth listening vocal version in 1958 played Anita O'Day. Manhattan Transfer took 1985 ( together with Bobby McFerrin ) another vocal version on their album Vocalise. The text used by them was from Jon Hendricks, the building on Charlie Parker's solo his text written to the melody and with his trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross had recorded in 1962. Ella Fitzgerald also went back to his text. Chaka Khan wrote another text for the song. There are also French, Dutch and Arabic lyrics.
Among the Beboppern the composition from the beginning had a " cult status " (Hans -Jürgen Schaal ). Lennie Tristano played a piece that also in 1946. There was the time a jazz standard and a popular jam session number. In 1960, he was the title track of the album Jazz Messengers A Night in Tunisia. It has been covered by many artists in different styles, for example by Bud Powell ( 1951), the Lighthouse All Stars (1954 ), Stan Getz (1955 ), Miles Davis (1955 ), but also by Count Basie Maynard Ferguson, Herbie Mann, Sonny Rollins ( with the Modern Jazz Quartet ), Anthony Braxton, Gerry Hemingway, Yosuke Yamashita, the the Turtle Iceland string Quartet, the Toasters and the Rotterdam Ska - Jazz Foundation.