Tritone Substitution: The substitution of a major-minor 7th chord whose root is a tritone away from the dominant for the dominant 7th chord.
A Night in Tunisia (1040-1942) by Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993)
A Night in Tunisia is a jazz standard that is well-known for its use of the tritone substitution. This piece is also called Interlude.
A video of a performance of this piece is below, followed by a chords only version of the score.
Analysis, mm. 1-12
A Night in Tunisia is in the key of D minor. In the first twelve measures of the piece (shown below), their are only four different chords. The progression Eb7 (or a variation of this chord – Eb7(+11) ) to D minor happens five times before proceeding to a iiø7-V7-i in the key of D minor.
The Eb7 chord is a tritone substitute for the dominant in the key: A7.
Therefore, a full analysis of this portion of the piece is as below:
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