Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers were, true to their name, labelled as jazz ambassadors and messengers to the outside world, a symbol of the melting pot that was the United States. To many, these jazz musicians transcended their entire identity: they were not Muslim, they were not black, they were artists. This aversion of Islamic influence in jazz continues to exist in contemporary analysis of jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, where writers and journalists explicitly or subtly sidestep the Islamic influence in the founding of such groups. (In a jazz DJ’s response, a jazz discography database, an NPR article about the “class presidents” of the Jazz Messengers, or an “extended analysis” of the Jazz Messengers, notice the lack of any mention of the Muslim musicians or Islam.)

In this widespread aversion against identifying Islam’s cultural influences in jazz, there lies an irony within the music structure of jazz itself. People understand jazz as an improvisatory art form, structured loosely around a specified harmonic scale. This framework of jazz music – especially modal jazz, a subgenre popularized by Miles Davis’ Milestones and John Coltrane – draws inspiration from early Middle Eastern music, where improvisation is a key component, performed around a set of unique harmonic modes known as the maqam. Similarly, in Indian classical music – particularly in Carnatic music – a musician is known for his or her prowess in improvisation around tonal sequences called ragas.

The irony extends when we look at particular songs that are held as jazz standards. “A Night in Tunisia” was composed by Dizzy Gillespie in 1941-1942 and was performed extensively by The Jazz Messengers in subsequent years.

Highly regarded as a jazz standard, the beginning bass line revolves around the double harmonic scale, which is a signature of much Arabic and Oriental music.

Bassline to “A Night in Tunisia”

Written in F major, the bassline in “A Night in Tunisia” has the following pitches in harmonic sequence (and in brackets, the scale degree, which denotes the relative position of the pitches to the original key/note):

F (tonic) – A  (supertonic) – Bb (subdominant) – B (tritone, or the Devil’s Interval) – Db (minor submediant/minor sixth) – D (submediant) – Eb (subtonic)

And the following is the double harmonic scale represented in F major:

F (tonic) – Gb (minor supertonic/minor second) – A (supertonic) – Bb (subdominant) – C (dominant) – Db (minor submediant/minor sixth) – E (leading note) – F (tonic/octave)

As underlined in purple, there are clear references to the double harmonic scale in “A Night in Tunisia”, especially with the minor sixth interval. Says Gillespie, “I played the progression and noticed they formed a melody…[with a] Latin, even oriental feeling.”

Ultimately, to draw a direct correlation between Oriental music and jazz music based on “A Night in Tunisia” may be haphazard, but to disregard the influence between the two would be ignorant.