Hal Smith: Jeff, when you think about the traditional jazz “warhorses”—like “At The Jazz Band Ball,” “That’s A Plenty” or “Fidgety Feet”—traditional jazz musicians usually don’t make too many variations on the order of the strains. But “Panama” is a whole different ball game! Starting with the first jazz recording of the song in 1922 by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, there are barely any records with the same routine, number of parts, or solos in the same places. Tracing the song as published through its development as a jazz standard is like trying to assemble a particularly difficult jigsaw puzzle! As background to this discussion, can you say something about the composer, the original form of the song and the way it was intended to be played?
Jeff Barnhart: I’d love to, Hal. “Panama” was originally a multi-strain piano solo by black musician, arranger and composer William H. Tyers, published in 1911. In form, it follows both marches and rags, but throughout it sports the habanera rhythm that Joplin utilized in his 1909 piece, “Solace.”
Tyers, born in Virginia in 1870, spent the bulk of his personal and professional life in the eastern US, primarily in NYC. Tyers was an accomplished musician in more demand for his arranging skills than his compositional abilities; no pieces he composed became mega-hits or “standards” of any genre in which h
