The black bottom dance came to Europe from overseas and garnered such popularity that it even replaced the dominant charleston in the season of 1926–7. It is a jazz dance in 4/4 time, a genre-affiliate of ragtime. The motions are a stylised imitation of walking in mud (whence the name). The dance is characterized by hops, stamps, slides, and spinss. Martinů completed his eponymous short piano work on 9 October 1927, as is documented by the dating on the composer's manuscript. Martinů had already been living in Paris for almost four years at the time, and as an attentive observer of all the happenings on the culture scene, he also let himself be briefly enamoured by the wave of jazz that suffesed the early 1920s. Martinů only visited his native Polička during the summer holidays, and Black Bottom, H 165, was the result of a friendly meet-up in the Na střelnici Pub. The dance is dedicated to his Polička friend Jan Novotný from Polička.
Lucie Harasim Berná, Snadné klavírní skladby a tance. Praha: Bärenreiter Praha, 2016, s. 3.