Ever since his first visits in the late nineties to New York’s many tap jam sessions, including Buster Brown’s legendary jam at Swing 46, Junior Laniyan had always felt that London needed its own forum for tap dancers to play with live musicians. But it wasn’t until early 2006 while at a basement club in Leicester Square that Junior saw a potential venue for an event. And as a result of pulling in the talents of Melody Lander and Dan Sheridan in June of that year at Oxygen Bar, the first London Tap Jam was held. Due to the support of the London tap community and original Bebop Hoofer Will Gaines, the event was a bigger success than the team expected. They realised that the jam had the potential to be a regular event, but they also knew they would need a bigger venue for it to work.

A few months later, deep in the heart of Soho, the team discovered Digress Soho, which was to become London Tap Jam’s home on a bi-monthly basis for the next two and a half years. Over that time, they were visited by high-profile international tap dancers including Roxane Butterfly and Heather Cornell who pledged their support to the event. As the jam became more established, they were able to support the tap dance community by providing subsidised workshops as well as hosting a special one-off Jam session at London’s Southbank Centre as part of the late Will Gaines’ 80th birthday celebrations.

In 2009 London Tap Jam was approached by Ronnie Scott’s, and asked to consider moving to the recently refurbished Ronnie’s Bar. At this point, they invited Michele Drees’ Trio to play for the LTJ and she has been providing live quality music ever since, inviting some of UY’s finest musicians.

Their support enabled the jam to become a regular monthly event, and since the move, they’ve been able to welcome back Roxane Butterfly and Heather Cornell and other internationally acclaimed tap dancers including Andrew Nemr, Guillem Alonso, Josh Hilberman, Lee Howard, Jason Samuels Smith, Max Pollak, Thanos Daskalopoulos, Thomas Wadelton, Jessie Sawyers, Lisa La Touche and Ruben Sanchez.

As Ronnie's Bar started to move away from live events in 2016, London Tap Jam sought out a new home with a brilliant new host Jess Murray. Deciding to move out East to the vibrant bars of Hoxton, they found Gigi’s (previously known as Zigfrid von Underbelly) — a lively bar with a stylish underground venue dedicated to live music — where London Tap Jam became a headline event at the popular London venue.

In 2017 London Tap Jam was excited to appear at The Southbank as part of The Urban Festival and in 2019 was thrilled to be part of Love Supreme Festival, the most renowned jazz festival in the UK.

In 2021 the London Tap Jam moved to the fabulous Woodman pub in Highgate.

Tom at the Woodman has been presenting great live Jazz for over 20 years. We start earlier and as it’s a friendly family venue, younger Tap Dancers are allowed to come along too which is really wonderful to see.