La Pas Ma La

"La Pas Ma La" is a composition published by minstrel performer Ernest Hogan in 1895 and recognized as the first published ragtime work.[1] With his troupe, the Georgia Graduates, Hogan created a comedy dance called the "Pasmala" consisting of a walk forward with three steps back, and in 1895 composed and published a song based on this dance. The song's chorus was:

Hand upon yo' head, let your mind roll back,
Back, back back and look at the stars
Stand up rightly, dance it brightly
That's the Pas Ma La.[2][3][4]
  1. ^ Ward, Liam (20 January 2022). "Before Jazz, Ragtime gave us America's First Music Stars". Messy Nessy. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  2. ^ Tap Roots: The Early History of Tap Dancing by Mark Knowles, McFarland & Company, 2002, ISBN 0-7864-1267-4, pages 119-20.
  3. ^ Knowles, Mark (20 May 2002). Tap Roots: The Early History of Tap Dancing. McFarland. p. 119. ISBN 9780786412679 – via Internet Archive. la pas ma la.
  4. ^ Gushee, Lawrence. "The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Jazz." Black Music Research Journal 14, no. 1 (1994): 1-24. doi:10.2307/779456.