Lift Your Feet - Jazz Dance Party with Paul Murphy

Lift Your Feet proudly present a jazz dance hero and legend of the scene, Paul Murphy, for our 3rd annual jazz dance party, in association with Leeds Jazz Festival.

After 2 sold out parties with DJs Coco Maria and Tina Edwards, we cannot wait to get going once again for what is set to be a night for the ages!

Paul Murphy

Innovator, taste maker, label honcho, trail-blazer - someone who, frankly, you cannot tell the story of 'jazz dance' without mentioning his name.

Before the likes of Gilles Peterson and Pete Tong hit the jazz dance scene, there was Paul Murphy. Paul first started DJing in 1978, and soon lead to a period of being one of the most in-demand DJs in the jazz dance scene during the 1980s.

His residencies at Electric Ballroom - which Gilles Peterson took over soon afterwards - The Wag and The Horseshoe in London became the places of legend for playing fast-but-danceable jazz music - be it jazz funk, Latin jazz, be-bop and more. A unique style of DJing, which lead to many dedicated dancers travelling from all over the UK, and even countries like Japan, to experience a Paul Murphy night. Ask any experienced dancer from the hey-day of jazz dance, and they will have a Paul Murphy story to tell!

Aside from his DJing, Paul can be credited with owning a first-in-class record shop of the time, called 'Fusions'. Sadly no longer with us, the shop garnered a reputation for deep diggers - alongside UK and US records, you could find records from Japan, Scandinavia, South America and more.

Into the present day, Paul now owns a record label, aptly called 'Jazz Room Records'. A label with a focus on reissuing much of Paul's record collection, alongside celebrating new jazz releases, it has quickly become one of the leading lights for celebrating rare and forgotten jazz records. Want an idea what Paul Murphy may spin on the evening? We would recommend starting here!

In strong support we have local up-and-comer Rachel Jazz, providing a rare outing into her supreme jazz dance collection, and Lift Your Feet founder Harry Rook.

This will be a party with dancers young and old - we urge you not to miss out!

Our jazz dance party is always our fastest selling party of the year, so please buy your ticket asap if you wish to attend.

For venue accessibility information, please visit Hyde Park Book Club's website