A Night in Tunisia Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt Valid harmonic variant

Section: A1 · Bars 1–8

Eb7 | Dm7 | Eb7 | Dm7 | Eb7 | Dm7 | Em7b5 A7 | Dm7

The tonic is printed as a minor seventh here. A great many charts write it Dm6, which is the older reading and the one on most of the early recordings.

This is a short excerpt quoted for analysis, not the full chart, and this composition is very likely still in copyright. Published versions and recordings disagree with each other about the rest of the tune, and often about these bars too.

The books behind this page

Every one of these tunes is assembled out of the same handful of harmonic resources. Jazz Harmony is those resources, explained in the order in which they build on each other.

Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Harmonic analysis

Key

D minor

Tonal center

D

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

9

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Eb7	subV7	Dominant	Eb7 is a tritone substitute for the dominant. It shares its tritone with A7 and slides down a semitone into D.	High
Dm7	i	Tonic	Dm7 is the tonic of Dm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Eb7	subV7	Dominant	Eb7 is a tritone substitute for the dominant. It shares its tritone with A7 and slides down a semitone into D.	High
Dm7	i	Tonic	Dm7 is the tonic of Dm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Eb7	subV7	Dominant	Eb7 is a tritone substitute for the dominant. It shares its tritone with A7 and slides down a semitone into D.	High
Dm7	i	Tonic	Dm7 is the tonic of Dm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Em7b5	iiø	Predominant	Em7b5 is the iiø7 of Dm: the predominant of a minor key.	High
A7	V7	Dominant	A7 is the dominant of Dm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
Dm7	i	Tonic	Dm7 is the tonic of Dm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

What the analyzer found in it

iiø - V7 - iEm7b5 - A7 - Dm7

A complete minor ii-V-i in Dm, with the half-diminished ii and a dominant that borrows its leading tone from harmonic minor.

V - IA7 - Dm7

The progression closes with an authentic cadence in Dm.

High, medium and low next to each numeral are judgements about musical context, not probabilities. A low rating marks a bar that can honestly be read more than one way. How the ratings are decided →

Why this example matters

Numbered against D minor, the excerpt is subV7 – i – iiø – V7. Inside those 9 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and a tritone substitute. Take the roots away and keep the third and seventh. In Eb7 that is G and Db. Those two notes decide where the progression is going, and hearing them move is worth more than naming the chords. Blues for Alice, All Blues and So What use the same device, which is the argument for learning it once properly rather than three times by accident.

How the rest of A Night in Tunisia goes

The A sections alternate between two chords a semitone apart, one of them a dominant standing in for the tonic’s dominant — a tritone substitution used not as a passing device but as half the structure. Underneath sits a written bass figure that is part of the composition rather than an arrangement choice. The tune also contains a famous written break before the last chorus, unaccompanied and in strict tempo, which is treated as a required element and is the part players actually practise.

A Night in Tunisia on record

Dizzy Gillespie wrote it around 1942; it circulated for a time under the title “Interlude”. It is one of the founding documents of Afro-Cuban jazz, a direction Gillespie pursued deliberately and at some professional cost. Charlie Parker’s 1946 recording contains a famously perfect take of the break, and Gillespie continued to play the piece for the rest of his life.

Analyze this progression

Open these chords in the analyzer and change them. Move one chord, substitute a dominant, take the ii away — the reading updates and tells you what you just did.

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A Night in Tunisia — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of A Night in Tunisia goes

A Night in Tunisia on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Tritone substitution

Blues for Alice

All Blues

So What

Jazz chord progressions