Naima

I’ve been doing so much explaining basic music theory that I thought it would be fun to dig into something advanced: “Naima” by John Coltrane, from his all-killer-no-filler album Giant Steps.

There are as many interpretations of this tune’s chord changes as there are transcriptions of it. The ones in the Real Book are real wrong. I hear the chords in The New Real Book Volume II as sounding correct. Fortunately, there’s a surviving manuscript in Coltrane’s own hand, and it confirms the New Real Book version, with a few trivial differences.

“Naima” is full of slash chords – chords with the “wrong” bass note. If you think of the bass note as determining the chord quality, you can interpret most of “Naima” as consisting of ornamented or altered dominant seventh chords. But the chords on top also retain their identity independent of their roots, creating some complex and fascinating tone colors.

The tune’s A section is a prolonged Eb7 to Ab cadence. However, because of the slow tempo, each chord also feels like a center of tonal gravity unto itself. Coltrane only wrote triads on his chart, but I include the full chords implied by the melody notes:

||: Dbmaj7/Eb | Ebm9 | Amaj7/Eb  Gmaj7/Eb | Abmaj7 :||

Here’s a closer look at each chord:

• The Dbmaj7/Eb functions as an Eb9sus4 with an added 6th on top. It’s a bright chord, but ambiguous too. E-flat is not the “correct” root for Dbmaj7, but both the note and the chord come from the same A-flat major scale, so it’s not very jarring.
• For the second chord, Coltrane wrote Gb/Eb rather than Ebm, but those are the same chord, and on guitar, it’s more practical to play it as Ebm9. I hear this chord as being borrowed from the parallel A-flat Dorian mode. It’s darker than the Eb7 from A-flat major, but not as dark as the other parallel minor scales.
• The Amaj7/Eb and Gmaj7/Eb chords in the third bar are the strangest ones in the whole tune. Ignoring the roots for a second, Coltrane is enclosing the final Abmaj7 with the parallel major seventh chords a half-step above and below. That’s not too weird in and of itself, but putting E-flat under those chords is extremely weird. There is logic here, though. Coltrane is implying the Eb altered scale: E-flat, F-flat, F-sharp, G, A, B, D-flat. The Amaj7 chord is mostly notes from within this scale, except for G-sharp (enharmonic to A-flat). I guess that implies a kind of Eb7alt(sus4)? That isn’t really a thing, but it’s the feeling I get. Gmaj7/Eb is a great voicing for Eb7alt if you leave out the fifth (which you should be doing with your jazz chords anyway.) The whole thing is gorgeous.

The B section functions as one long Bb7 chord, the V/V that resolves to the Eb7 in the following A section. Each chord retains its own distinct identity as well:

| Bmaj7/Bb | Bb13(b9) | Bmaj7/Bb  | Bb13(b9) |
| Dmaj7/Bb | Bmaj7/Bb | Abmaj7/Bb | Emaj7/Bb |

• Bmaj7/Bb looks like a regular old major seventh chord with its seventh in the bass. However, in context, it functions as Bb7sus(b9).
• You could voice Bb13(b9) as G/Bb. This chord is a favorite sonority of Coltrane’s mentor Thelonious Monk. It’s built around the Bb half-whole diminished scale. One of Coltrane’s most famous riffs uses this scale – I learned it from Jerry Garcia.
• Dmaj7/Bb implies the B-flat altered scale: B-flat, C-flat, C-sharp, D, F-flat, G-flat, A-flat. Leave out the fifth of Dmaj7 unless you want a hair-raising clash (though maybe you do want it!)
• Abmaj7/Bb is the same chord as Bb9sus4 with a pleasant added 6th. Even though this chord includes the tonic triad, it doesn’t feel like we’ve arrived “home” yet.
• Emaj7/Bb is the same chord as the Amaj7/Eb from the A section, transposed up a fourth. It’s similarly acting as Bb7alt, but “suspended.”

The ending is seemingly much simpler than the rest of the tune. It’s just a walk up the A-flat major scale from E-flat to E-flat, with the chords Abmaj7 and Dbmaj7 alternating underneath. That seems pretty plain-vanilla compared to the rich dissonance we’ve been hearing so far. However, there’s more going on here than you might immediately think. You would expect the Abmaj7 chords to feel more “resolved” and the Dbmaj7 to feel “suspended.” However, the most resolved-sounding melody notes (A-flat and C) are on the Dbmaj7, while the most unresolved-sounding ones (G and B-flat) are on the Abmaj7. It’s a beautiful effect.

Coltrane recorded and performed “Naima” many times. Here’s a “classic quartet” version with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones from 1965. The sound quality isn’t great, but the music is.

Here’s a performance from 1966, with Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, Rashied Ali, and Emanuel Rahim.

Coltrane sideman Eric Dolphy recorded a Latin version with a gorgeous solo bass clarinet intro.

I also appreciate George Benson’s solo guitar arrangement.

A guy named Shane Parish does a very different solo guitar version. He tunes his bottom strings to drone the pedal tones, which sounds great. But he ignores the changes completely, and leaves out all the dissonance.

Wycliffe Gordon does a straightahead classicist version. The melody sounds great on trombone.

Tom Scott’s lounge-fusion version is ridiculous, but it has nice production, and as a result, rap producers have sampled it many times. (It’s on the same album as the saxophone break in “They Reminisce Over You.”)

The most current example of a Tom Scott “Naima” sample is “Wendy N Becky” by Joey Bada$$ featuring Chance the Rapper.

From back in the 90s, there’s also “Speak Ya Peace” by Lord Finesse.

Finally, check out Nas’ “It Ain’t Hard To Tell (The Laidback Remix),” produced by The Creators.

Hit me with your best covers, remixes and samples in the comments.