Nica's Dream

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"Nica's Dream" is a jazz standard [1] composed by Horace Silver in 1954. It is one of many songs written in tribute to jazz patroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter. [2] The song has been recorded by The Jazz Messengers as well as many other artists. It features jazz melodic minor harmony with prominent minor-major 7th chords. Its first studio recording by Silver was on the Horace-Scope album.

Thomas Owens describes the composition – "The trumpet melody, one of the great themes in jazz literature, is a 64-measure song in aaba form. The accompaniment for the a sections is in a Latin style based on [...] one of Silver's favorite patterns. In the bridge the accompaniment alternates between backbeat chordal punctuations and four-beat swing. During the solos the rhythm section maintains the same accompanimental textures, which both clarify the form and maintain the theme's original moods and textures." [3]

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References

  1. "NPR's Jazz Profiles: Horace Silver" . Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  2. "Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, 74". New York Times. December 2, 1988. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  3. Owens, Thomas (1996). Bebop – The Music and Its Players . Oxford University Press. pp.  222. ISBN   978-0-19-510651-0.