Lift Your Feet - Talk Event with Paul Murphy

Lift Your Feet presents the jazz dance DJ legend Paul Murphy in conversation, in association with Leeds Jazz Festival

Talking about the history of jazz dance, his illustrious DJ career so far, becoming a label head honco of Jazz Room Records and more

**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.

Talk will be hosted by Harry Rook of Lift Your Feet

Free entry

Event will start at approximately 17:30 and end at approximately 19:00

Tickets very limited - you must purchase a free ticket on this event page in order to attend the event

(Tickets for our Jazz Dance Party later in the evening must be purchased separately, please see our promoter profile for this event listing)

Please see HPBC's website for accessibility info