Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides an excerpt from the book Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance by Marshall Stearns and Jean Stearns (first edition published in 1968; second edition published in 1994).
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the memory of early African American dance inventors, dancers, song composers, and singers. Thanks also to Thomas W. Talley for his collection of African American folk songs and dances, and thanks to Marshall and Jean Stearns for their research and writing. And thanks to all others who are quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/la-pas-ma-la-songs-dance.html for an earlier pancocojams post on the "Pas Ma La" dance.
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/05/square-dance-caller-researcher-phil.html for Part I of a two part series on the African influence on American square dance.
Additional pancocojams posts that are related to this post on early African American dancing can be found by clicking the tags that are given below.
Pancocojams Editor's note:
Some of the song lyrics that are found in this post are written in dialect and contain the referent that is commonly referred to as "the n word". As per the policy of this blog, that word isn't fully spelled out in this post.
Also, note that the 1968 Jazz Dance book uses either the referent "Afro-American" or "Negro" for the population now referred to as "African American". Neither "Afro-American" nor "Negro" are currently used as referents for this population.
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Pancocojams Editor:
The Jazz Dance chapter that is partially quoted in this pancocojams post refers to the song "Jonah's Band" which is featured in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes. Here's that song (given "as is" except for an abbreviation for the "n word")
JONAH'S BAND SONG
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
"Han's up sixteen! Circle to de right!
We's gwine to git big eatin's here to-night."
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
"Raise yo' right foot, kick it up high,
Knock dat Mobile Buck in de eye."
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
"Stan' up, flat foot, Jump dem Bars!
Karo back'ards lak a train o' kyars."
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
“Dance 'round, Mistiss, show 'em de p'int;
Dat Ni**er don't know how to Coonjaint."
From https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise and Otherwise, by Thomas W. Talley (1922), Page 1
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BOOK EXCERPT: JAZZ DANCE: THE STORY OF AMERICAN VERNACULAR DANCES
by Marshall Stearns & Jean Stearns
From Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0306805537; Chapter Title: The Tin Pan Alley And Song Lyrics
Page 99
"At an early date lyrics were created to go with dances. “The Dance Rhyme was derived from the dance.” wrote Thomas W. Talley in 1922
Page 100
and-as in the similar example of the Juba discussed in Chapter 4- illustrates his point with a dance called Jonah’s Band.
"First of all be it known that there is a “step” in dancing, originated by some Negro somewhere called the “Jonah’s Band step”…The dancers form a circle placing two or more of their skilled dancers in the middle of it…Some dance leaders, for example simple call out in simple prose- “Dance the “Mobile Buck”, others calling for another step would rhyme their call.”
The chorus of the song consists of the repetition of the line “Setch a kickin up san’. Jonah’s Ban’!” to a Charleston rhythm at which point all the dancers execute the same step.
Before each of three choruses other steps are introduced.
"Han's up sixteen! Circle to de right!
We's gwine to git big eatin's here to-night."
"Raise yo' right foot, kick it up high,
Knock dat Mobile Buck in de eye."
"Stan' up, flat foot, [1]Jump dem Bars!
Karo back'ards lak a train o' kyars."
“Dance 'round, Mistiss, show 'em de p'int;
Dat Ni**er don't know how to Coonjaint."
The Karo and Jump Dem Bars seem to have disappeared without a trace, although the latter is self-explanatory, and a flat-footed bar-jump is typically Afro-American. Old-timers say that the Mobile Buck is an ancestor of the common Buck, which evolved into the Time Step, while the prolific Coonjaint-once a rhythmic shuffle performed by roustabouts loading riverboats and a dance observed in Congo Square-later became identified with the tune of a children’s play-party song (“I love coffee, I love tea...).
In its early folk form the dance song with instructions is a group dance performed in a circle with a few “experts” in the center-and the emphasis is on what they do. An apparently unlimited number of locally known steps are inserted and improvised upon by the experts. The entire performance is held together by the chorus of dancers forming the circle and executing the steps that gives the dance its title. The description of inserted dances is brief if it occurs at all (in the Juba, the inserted steps are merely named) and little editorializing as to its purported origin, nature, or popularity-gimmicks that became common later, when the dances were commercialized.
A transitional dance-song entitled “La Pas Ma La” (Isaac Goldberg says that phrase comes from the French pas mele*, or mixed step) was published in 1865-perhaps the dance introduced by Ernest Hogan and his Georgia Graduates as the Pasmala. As one of the early efforts to combine folk steps with topical dances of the time, the “Pas Ma La” describes its title step in the chorus
Hands on your head, let your mind roll far,
Page 101
Back, back, back, and look at the stars.
Stand up rightly, dance it brightly.
That’s the Pas Ma La.
Old-timers recall the step clearly. “It was a comedy dance,” says Walter Crumbley. “You walked forward and then hopped back three steps with your knees bent” as the directions “back, back, back” indicate. The hand on hand and mind-rolling appear to be optional variations.
The “Pas Ma La” was sometimes confused with an animal dance, which may have added to its survival, for by 1898 a song entitled “The Possum-a-la” was published, one of a series of dance-songs that popped up with titles such as “The Possum Trot” around 1910. “The Possum Trot” says Perry Bradford “was a dance which consisted of a series of fast, flat hops.” Here, the folk tradition which favored a flat-footed style, seems to have become stronger, while blending with the Tin Pan Alley version.
Again, other steps are introduced before each chorus in four verses of the “Pas Ma La”
Fus yo’ say “My ni**ah get yo gun
Shoot-a dem ducks an away you run.
Now my little coon come-a and dance the shute
With the Saint-a Louis pass and Chicago Salute.
The literal direction in the first two lines in which the dancer acts out the shooting of a duck is typical of many vernacular dances and finds an analogue in a rock and roll dance of the early nineteen sixties: The Peter Gunn: emulating a fast-shooting private eye on television. The Saint Louis pass and Chicago Salute are apparently topical concoctions of Tin Pan Alley references to the World’s Fairs.
Another introductory quatrain contains references to three more dances which are better known:
Fus yo’ say “My ni**ah, Bumbishay
Then turn ‘round and go the other way
To the World’s Fair and do the Turkey Trot
Do not dat coon tink he look very hot.
The various spellings of Bumbishay (mentioned along with the Eagle Rock, the Mooche, and Hootchy-Ma-Cootch-which is the Congo Grind- in pianist Jelly Roll Morton’s “Animule Ball”) was known in New Orleans, according to Paul Barbarin, as the “Fanny Bump”- which needs no explanation. Going to the World’s Fair was a strut (“you put both feet together and move forward on your toes” says Ida Forsyne), while the appearance of the Turkey Trot here, about fifteen years before it became a hit in New York, suggest that it came from the folk.
In spite of the atrocious dialect and Jim Crow sentiments, the lyrics of “Pas Ma La” reveal the nature of the changes taking place in the dance-
page 102
sing as it became commercialized. It is clearly no longer a group dance with improvised soloists, but rather a couple dance with fixed steps in definite order. Although the verse names new steps, and the chorus describes the main step, the aim is to sell the dance.
During the early teens and after, the dance-song with instructions multiplied rapidly, and a few, chiefly Negro composers, drew upon folk resources. These few became more influential than their numbers indicate, for although their popularity was limited at first to the Negro public, they gradually-as in the case of “Ballin The Jack”-reached a white audience. This led the way to the more enduring dances of the twenties and thirties that are often named and sometimes described in the earlier dance songs Tin Pan Alley was contributing indirectly to the surfacing of vernacular dance movements.
-snip-
*This French word was written with accent marks.
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label Pas Ma La. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pas Ma La. Show all posts
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
"Possum-La" Singing Game & Its 19th Century Source "Pas Ma La"
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides information about the 19th century African American secular song & dance "Pas Ma La". This post also provides information and two examples of the 20th century African American singing game entitled "Possum-la" whose title has its source in the 19th "Pas Ma La" song.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and entertainment purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all the composers and collectors of these songs/dances and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
THE 19th CENTURY "PAS MA LA" SONG & DANCE
From Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895 By Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff [Google book]
Page 444
“The Possum A La” or “Pas Ma La” is generally considered to have a “characteristic” African American folk dance. The title appears to be a phonetic corruption of a colloquial French term. Music historian Isaac Goldberg speculated in 1930 that it derived from “the French pas mele or mixed step. One 1895 sheet-music version is sub-titled “La Das [sic] Pas Malaise” (The Difficult Step).
“The Pas Ma La” may have been the dance pointed out by a correspondent from Louisville, Kentucky, in the April 1, 1893, edition of the Freeman, “Prof. J.T. Guillard, a dance master, lectured to young ladies and gentlemen about the dance called “Possum”. It is likely that Guillard was admonishing his pupils to refrain from indulging in this low- brow, up-from-under dance. Several months later, in 1894, Irving Jones introduced his sheet music of “Possumala Dance” which ragtime historians had cited for its “few measures of real ragtime scoring”...
Irving Jones’ “Possumala Dance” appears to have been the first of a run of sheet music renditions of “Pas Ma La”...
Page 434
In 1895 [African American composer Earnest] Hogan wrote a drama called “In Old Tennessee” in which he introduced his famous song “Pas Ma La” – being the first ragtime song published. [Hogan] then followed [that song] with the world famous hit “All Coons Look Alike To Me”.
-snip-
As an aside, late in his life Earnest Hogan wrote that he very much regretted composing the "All Coons Look Alike To Me" song. In that song "coons" was a referent for "Black people".
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/la-pas-ma-la-songs-dance.html for more information about the Pas Ma La song/dance. That post includes videos of musicians playing the Pas Ma La song.
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POSSUM-LA SINGING GAME
Excerpt #1:
From http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=23406
"Title :: Commentary by Bessie Jones on Possum-la
....
Setting :: Alan Lomax's apartment, 3rd Street...
New York City (New York), New York (United States)
....
Culture :: Southern U.S., African American, Sea Islands, Georgia
Date :: 6/26/1961
....
Recording Notes :
[Bessie] Jones describes Possum-la as a swing more than a balling the jack dance. "Possum La, I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed," she sings.
Taken from text in "Step It Down": "In 1937 John. A and Alan Lomax recorded a version of this for the Library of Congress, sung by an African American girl from Alabama. The Lomaxes suggest that perhaps she was saying "pas-ma-la", a corruption of the French phrase referring to a dance step. Mrs. Jones's version, however, seems clearly focused on a fat possum up in a tree, happily gorging himself and littering the ground below with persimmon seeds." [Source: Step It Down]
-snip-
Citation for the "Step It Down" book is found in Excerpt #2 below.
****
Excerpt #2:
From Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage by Bess Hawes & Bessie Jones (Brown Thrasher Books Ser.) September 1, 1987
pages 127 [Page 128 is a musical notation of the "Possum-La" song that Bessie Jones shares in that book.]
[Pancocojams Editor: These notes and lyrics follow the quote that is given in Excerpt #1 above.]
"She [Bessie Jones does know a dance step by the same name [of possum la]. and describes it as being "about like the Kneebone Bend"*. "The "Possum-La" dancer shuffles and "cuts up" casually, or perhaps skips around in a circle, until the word "possum-la, when he gives a slight jump or "chug" to one side, landing with his knees deeply bent. The same action is taken on the word "seed". In the refrain, he makes five such jumps, swinging his body from side to side and jumping first at one angle and then at another.
FORM: Indefinite; may be danced alone or in a group. Solo or group singing with patting, heel tapping, or clapping. Even the song is fluid, this is my reconstruction of Mrs. Jones' highly varied melody.
Possum up-a that 'simmon tree,**
Possum up-a that 'simmon tree,
I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed.
Possum-la, possum-la, possum-la,
I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed.
I want you to catch that possum for me,
I want you to catch that possum for me,
I want you to catch that possum for me,
I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed.
Possum-la, possum-la, possum-la,
I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed.
-snip-
*Here's a description for the "Kneebone Bend" dance move that Bessie Jones gave in Step It Down as one of the movements that was done for the religious ring shout entitled "Daniel":
"KNEEBONE BEND- a slight sliding jump landing on both feet with the knees bent sharply; the impact should be timed to the word "bend". (the same step as the secular "Possum-La".)" page 144
-snip-
The McIntosh County Shouters performance of the ring shout "Move Daniel" at 19.19 - 21.13 of the video embedded below is similar if not the same as the performance described by Bessie Jones for the religious song "Daniel".
McIntosh County Shouters: Gullah-Geechee Ring Shout from Georgia
LibraryOfCongress, Uploaded on Apr 12, 2011
The McIntosh County Shouters perform Gullah-Geechee Ring Shout at a concert at the Library.
Speaker Biography: The McIntosh County Shouters is a ten-member Gullah-Geechee group that began performing professionally in 1980. They have educated and entertained audiences around the United States with the "ring shout," a compelling fusion of counterclockwise dance-like movement, call-and-response singing, and percussion consisting of hand claps and a stick beating the rhythm on a wooden floor. African in its origins, the ring shout affirms oneness with the Spirit and ancestors as well as community cohesiveness. The ring shout was first described in detail during the Civil War by outside observers in coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. Its practice continued well into the 20th Century, even as its influence was resounding in later forms like spiritual, jubilee, gospel and jazz. By the late 20th century, the ring shout itself was presumed to have died out until its rediscovery in McIntosh County in 1980; thus, the beginning of the McIntosh County Shouters.
-snip-
The lyrics for The McIntosh County Shouters' version of "Move Daniel" can be found at http://www.civilwarheritagetrails.org/civil-war-music/move-daniel.html. Those lyrics don't include the "kneebone bend" verse that is included in the ring shout "Daniel" that Bessie Jones shared in Step It Down. However, otherwise, the performance style demonstrated by The McIntosh County Shouters' for that song appears to me to be very similar if not the same as the performance style described by Bessie Jones.
-snip-
**Possum up that 'simmon tree" is a floating line from a secular 19th century African American song with that title (also given as "Possum Up The Gum Tree". That line and verse/s from that song which begin the with that line are floating verses that can be found in a number of African American folk songs.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post provides information about the 19th century African American secular song & dance "Pas Ma La". This post also provides information and two examples of the 20th century African American singing game entitled "Possum-la" whose title has its source in the 19th "Pas Ma La" song.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and entertainment purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all the composers and collectors of these songs/dances and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
THE 19th CENTURY "PAS MA LA" SONG & DANCE
From Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895 By Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff [Google book]
Page 444
“The Possum A La” or “Pas Ma La” is generally considered to have a “characteristic” African American folk dance. The title appears to be a phonetic corruption of a colloquial French term. Music historian Isaac Goldberg speculated in 1930 that it derived from “the French pas mele or mixed step. One 1895 sheet-music version is sub-titled “La Das [sic] Pas Malaise” (The Difficult Step).
“The Pas Ma La” may have been the dance pointed out by a correspondent from Louisville, Kentucky, in the April 1, 1893, edition of the Freeman, “Prof. J.T. Guillard, a dance master, lectured to young ladies and gentlemen about the dance called “Possum”. It is likely that Guillard was admonishing his pupils to refrain from indulging in this low- brow, up-from-under dance. Several months later, in 1894, Irving Jones introduced his sheet music of “Possumala Dance” which ragtime historians had cited for its “few measures of real ragtime scoring”...
Irving Jones’ “Possumala Dance” appears to have been the first of a run of sheet music renditions of “Pas Ma La”...
Page 434
In 1895 [African American composer Earnest] Hogan wrote a drama called “In Old Tennessee” in which he introduced his famous song “Pas Ma La” – being the first ragtime song published. [Hogan] then followed [that song] with the world famous hit “All Coons Look Alike To Me”.
-snip-
As an aside, late in his life Earnest Hogan wrote that he very much regretted composing the "All Coons Look Alike To Me" song. In that song "coons" was a referent for "Black people".
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/la-pas-ma-la-songs-dance.html for more information about the Pas Ma La song/dance. That post includes videos of musicians playing the Pas Ma La song.
****
POSSUM-LA SINGING GAME
Excerpt #1:
From http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=23406
"Title :: Commentary by Bessie Jones on Possum-la
....
Setting :: Alan Lomax's apartment, 3rd Street...
New York City (New York), New York (United States)
....
Culture :: Southern U.S., African American, Sea Islands, Georgia
Date :: 6/26/1961
....
Recording Notes :
[Bessie] Jones describes Possum-la as a swing more than a balling the jack dance. "Possum La, I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed," she sings.
Taken from text in "Step It Down": "In 1937 John. A and Alan Lomax recorded a version of this for the Library of Congress, sung by an African American girl from Alabama. The Lomaxes suggest that perhaps she was saying "pas-ma-la", a corruption of the French phrase referring to a dance step. Mrs. Jones's version, however, seems clearly focused on a fat possum up in a tree, happily gorging himself and littering the ground below with persimmon seeds." [Source: Step It Down]
-snip-
Citation for the "Step It Down" book is found in Excerpt #2 below.
****
Excerpt #2:
From Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage by Bess Hawes & Bessie Jones (Brown Thrasher Books Ser.) September 1, 1987
pages 127 [Page 128 is a musical notation of the "Possum-La" song that Bessie Jones shares in that book.]
[Pancocojams Editor: These notes and lyrics follow the quote that is given in Excerpt #1 above.]
"She [Bessie Jones does know a dance step by the same name [of possum la]. and describes it as being "about like the Kneebone Bend"*. "The "Possum-La" dancer shuffles and "cuts up" casually, or perhaps skips around in a circle, until the word "possum-la, when he gives a slight jump or "chug" to one side, landing with his knees deeply bent. The same action is taken on the word "seed". In the refrain, he makes five such jumps, swinging his body from side to side and jumping first at one angle and then at another.
FORM: Indefinite; may be danced alone or in a group. Solo or group singing with patting, heel tapping, or clapping. Even the song is fluid, this is my reconstruction of Mrs. Jones' highly varied melody.
Possum up-a that 'simmon tree,**
Possum up-a that 'simmon tree,
I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed.
Possum-la, possum-la, possum-la,
I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed.
I want you to catch that possum for me,
I want you to catch that possum for me,
I want you to catch that possum for me,
I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed.
Possum-la, possum-la, possum-la,
I don't see nothing but the 'simmon seed.
-snip-
*Here's a description for the "Kneebone Bend" dance move that Bessie Jones gave in Step It Down as one of the movements that was done for the religious ring shout entitled "Daniel":
"KNEEBONE BEND- a slight sliding jump landing on both feet with the knees bent sharply; the impact should be timed to the word "bend". (the same step as the secular "Possum-La".)" page 144
-snip-
The McIntosh County Shouters performance of the ring shout "Move Daniel" at 19.19 - 21.13 of the video embedded below is similar if not the same as the performance described by Bessie Jones for the religious song "Daniel".
McIntosh County Shouters: Gullah-Geechee Ring Shout from Georgia
LibraryOfCongress, Uploaded on Apr 12, 2011
The McIntosh County Shouters perform Gullah-Geechee Ring Shout at a concert at the Library.
Speaker Biography: The McIntosh County Shouters is a ten-member Gullah-Geechee group that began performing professionally in 1980. They have educated and entertained audiences around the United States with the "ring shout," a compelling fusion of counterclockwise dance-like movement, call-and-response singing, and percussion consisting of hand claps and a stick beating the rhythm on a wooden floor. African in its origins, the ring shout affirms oneness with the Spirit and ancestors as well as community cohesiveness. The ring shout was first described in detail during the Civil War by outside observers in coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. Its practice continued well into the 20th Century, even as its influence was resounding in later forms like spiritual, jubilee, gospel and jazz. By the late 20th century, the ring shout itself was presumed to have died out until its rediscovery in McIntosh County in 1980; thus, the beginning of the McIntosh County Shouters.
-snip-
The lyrics for The McIntosh County Shouters' version of "Move Daniel" can be found at http://www.civilwarheritagetrails.org/civil-war-music/move-daniel.html. Those lyrics don't include the "kneebone bend" verse that is included in the ring shout "Daniel" that Bessie Jones shared in Step It Down. However, otherwise, the performance style demonstrated by The McIntosh County Shouters' for that song appears to me to be very similar if not the same as the performance style described by Bessie Jones.
-snip-
**Possum up that 'simmon tree" is a floating line from a secular 19th century African American song with that title (also given as "Possum Up The Gum Tree". That line and verse/s from that song which begin the with that line are floating verses that can be found in a number of African American folk songs.
****
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