Horace Silver - 1954
The first recording of ‘Nica’s Dream was on the album ‘The Jazz Messengers’ (1956). It is taken at what now seems like a painfully slow tempo. Horace Silver’s 1960 recording on the album ‘Horace-Scope’ is faster and very exciting.
‘Nica’s Dream’ is built on Harmonic Minor harmony (sort of):
A minor scale is built on the 6th degree of a major scale. For example, C major begins on ‘c’ so the corresponding minor scale starts on ‘a’. The “harmonic minor” sharpens the 7th degree of the minor scale (g# instead of g).
The key signature in this piece has 5 flats so the major scale is Db. The corresponding harmonic minor scale starts on ‘b flat’. The harmony stacks for that scale is shown in Example 1.
After a tension filled intro based on augmented chords (#5) Silver immediately establishes the tonic with the I chord (Bbm/maj7) in bar 8. This is a great chord to play with expectations because, of course, we are used to having a minor 7 on a minor chord.
Two bars later he throws the harmonic minor out the window by moving down a tone and playing a Abm/maj7!
Bars 14 to 22: The Abm/maj7 now becomes an Abm7 which sets up a II – V – I to a GbM7. Finally we get a C half diminished which begins a “proper” II – V – I to the original harmonic minor tonic of Bbm/maj7. Simple!!!