Kirk Lightsey

Kirk Lightsey performs on piano and flute as a refined improviser whose supple touch favors expansive post-bop modal jazz together with warmly interpreted standards. He entered the world in Detroit, Michigan, during 1935, began piano studies at age five, and absorbed swing and big-band sounds through radio broadcasts and his mother’s record collection. Private lessons with celebrated instructor Gladys Wade Dillard followed; the same teacher had also guided fellow Detroit figures Barry Harris and Tommy Flanagan. While enrolled at Cass Technical High School with classmates Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, and Hugh Lawson, Lightsey developed a serious interest in jazz. He played clarinet in the school orchestra yet spent afternoons at Barry Harris’s house acquiring improvisation skills on piano. Although his clarinet ability earned a 1954 scholarship to Wayne State University, he declined it to launch a jazz-piano career. Early engagements included work with Joe Henderson, Yusef Lateef, Melba Liston, and others. Commercial tours with Arthur Bragg’s Rhythm and Blues Show placed him behind T-Bone Walker, Della Reese, and the Four Tops. After Army service that featured clarinet duty in the Fort Knox Army Band, he returned to Detroit for steady performances with Cecil McBee and studio work at Motown Records while continuing classical studies with pianist Boris Maximovich. The 1960s brought his first sideman recordings on several albums with trumpeter Chet Baker, beginning with the 1966 release Groovin’ with the Chet Baker Quintet. He also appeared on Sonny Stitt’s 1967 album Pow, collaborated with vocalist Damita Jo, managed the production group In Stage, and resumed playing flute. A 1970s post as pianist and music director for singer O.C. Smith took him to Los Angeles, where he worked with Bobby Hutcherson, Pharoah Sanders, Harold Land, and additional artists. In 1974 he recorded the duo album Habiba with saxophonist Rudolph Johnson for the Gallo label, then spent five years touring with Dexter Gordon. Lightsey’s own catalog expanded in the 1980s after he joined the newly founded French Sunnyside label and issued his debut solo album, Lightsey 1, in 1982. The trio session Isotope, with bassist Jesper Lundgaard and drummer Eddie Gladden, appeared on Criss Cross. Subsequent Sunnyside releases included Lightsey 2 in 1984, Lightsey Live in 1985, and Everything Is Changed in 1986. He closed the decade with the 1987 quintet date Kirk n’ Marcus alongside trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. A 1988 European tour reunited him with Chet Baker, who died after falling from an Amsterdam hotel window. Additional recordings featured Woody Shaw, Jim Pepper, and David “Fathead” Newman. During the same period Lightsey joined the supergroup the Leaders, documenting several albums with trumpeter Lester Bowie, saxophonists Arthur Blythe and Chico Freeman, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Famoudou Don Moye. The following decade kept him active; he recorded with Detroit colleagues Wendell Harrison and Marcus Belgrave as well as David Murray and Bill Pierce. His own projects included the 1990 Nat King Cole tribute From Kirk to Nat and 1994’s Goodbye Mr. Evans. Since the mid-1990s Lightsey has resided in France while continuing to tour and record. The live album The Nights of Bradley’s appeared in 2004, and he rejoined the Leaders for 2007’s Spirits Alike. In 2008 he collaborated with vocalist Louise Gibbs on Everybody’s Song But Our Own. The live set Solo Piano en Argentina, captured at the Festival Internacional de Jazz de Buenos Aires, surfaced in 2013. He next joined bassist Tibor Elekes and drummer Famoudou Don Moye for the 2015 trio album Le Corbu and, two years later, recorded Some Place Called Where with vocalist Marilena Paradisi.