"Nica's Dream" is a

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive lis ...

composed by

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...

in 1954. It is one of many songs written in tribute to jazz patroness

Pannonica de Koenigswarter Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter (''née'' Rothschild; 10 December 1913 – 30 November 1988) was a British-born jazz patron and writer. A leading patron of bebop, she was a member of the Rothschild family. Personal life Kath ...

. The song was first recorded by

the Jazz Messengers The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the o ...

in 1956, and has since been recorded by many other artists. It features jazz

melodic minor In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...

harmony with prominent minor-major 7th chords. Its first studio recording by Silver was on the ''

Horace-Scope ''Horace-Scope'' is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label in 1960 featuring performances by Silver with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor (bassist), Gene Taylor, and Roy Brooks. Recepti ...

'' 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." A vocal version was first recorded by Feather in 1983, and released the following year on the album ''Zanzibar''.

References

{{Horace Silver 1954 compositions Songs about dreams Compositions by Horace Silver Hard bop jazz standards Jazz compositions in B-flat minor