Kirkland "Kirk" Lightsey (b. Feb. 15, 1937, Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

) is an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 pianist.

Lightsey had piano instruction from age five and studied piano and clarinet through high school. After service in the Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

, Lightsey worked in Detroit and California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 in the 1960s as an accompanist to singers. He also worked with jazz musicians such as Yusef Lateef

Yusef Lateef

Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...

, Betty Carter

Betty Carter

Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...

, Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...

, Bobby Hutcherson

Bobby Hutcherson

Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...

, Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt

Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...

, Chet Baker

Chet Baker

Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...

, and Kenny Burrell

Kenny Burrell

Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...

. From 1979 to 1983 he toured with Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

 and was a member of The Leaders

The Leaders

The Leaders is a jazz supergroup formed in 1985.The initial lineup of The Leaders was put together by trumpeter Lester Bowie, alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, and tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman, along with a rhythm section of pianist Kirk Lightsey, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Famoudou Don...

 in the late 1980s. During the 1980s he led several sessions of his own, including duets with pianist Harold Danko

Harold Danko

Harold Danko is an American jazz pianist.Danko attended Youngstown State University. Among his credits are work in the big bands of Chet Baker, Woody Herman, and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, as well as smaller ensembles with Gerry Mulligan and Lee Konitz...

. In the 1980s and since he has worked with Jimmy Raney

Jimmy Raney

Jimmy Raney was an American jazz guitarist born in Louisville, Kentucky most notable for his work from 1951–1952 and 1962–1963 with Stan Getz and for his work from 1953–1954 with the Red Norvo trio, replacing Tal Farlow. In 1954 and 1955 he won the Down Beat critics poll for guitar...

, Clifford Jordan

Clifford Jordan

Clifford Laconia Jordan was a jazz saxophone player. While in Chicago, he performed with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some rhythm and blues groups. He moved to New York City in 1957, after which he recorded three albums for Blue Note. He also recorded with Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson, Kenny...

, Woody Shaw

Woody Shaw

Woody Shaw was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and band leader, often referred to as the "last innovator" in the jazz trumpet lineage...

, David Murray

David Murray (jazz musician)

David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...

, Joe Lee Wilson

Joe Lee Wilson

Joe Lee Wilson was an American gospel-influenced jazz singer, originally from Bristow, Oklahoma. His voice is best recognized from several Archie Shepp albums recorded for Impulse! Records.-Biography:...

, Adam Taubitz

Adam Taubitz

Adam Taubitz is a German jazz and classic musician, violinist, trumpeter, guitarist bandleader, and composer. From 1997 he was Principal 2nd Violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado...

 and Harold Land

Harold Land

Harold de Vance Land was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style. His tone was strong and emotional, yet displayed a certain fragility that made him easy to...

.

Rooted in the hard bop

Hard bop

Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...

 genre, Lightsey's sound is marked by a certain openness and even playfulness. He is also an accomplished flautist and occasionally doubles on flute in live performances.

As leader

• Lightsey 1 (Sunnyside Records
  Sunnyside Records
  Sunnyside Records is an American jazz record label.Sunnyside was founded in 1982 by Francois Zalacain and Christine Berthet. Its early releases consisted primarily of piano solo material and ensembles without drums, but in later years has broadened its selection of material.-Artists who have...
  
  , 1982)
• Lightsey 2 (Sunnyside, 1982)
• Isotope (Criss Cross Jazz
  Criss Cross Jazz
  Criss Cross Jazz is a Dutch jazz record label, specializing in American jazz.Criss Cross was founded in 1980 by Gerry Teekens, a drummer and German professor. The label, which releases about 20 albums per year, is noted for its simple, block-color cover art...
  
  , 1983)
• Shorter by Two (Criss Cross, 1983)
• Everything Happens to Me (Timeless Records
  Timeless Records
  Timeless Records is a jazz record label from The Netherlands.Timeless was founded in Wageningen in 1975 by Wim Wigt. It has specialized in bebop, though it also did a subseries of important releases of Dixieland and swing recordings. As of ca...
  
  , 1983)
• Lightsey Live (Sunnyside, 1985)
• First Affairs (Limetree Records, 1986)
• Everything Is Changed (Sunnyside, 1986)
• Kirk 'n' Marcus (Criss Cross, 1986)
• From Kirk to Nat (Criss Cross, 1990)
• Goodbye Mr. Evans (Evidence Records, 1994)
• The Nights of Bradley's (Sunnyside, 2004)
• Estate (Itinera Records, 2007)

As sideman

With Blue Mitchell

Blue Mitchell

Richard Allen Mitchell was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and funk trumpeter, known for many albums recorded as leader and sideman for Riverside, Blue Note and then Mainstream Records.-Biography:...

 & Harold Land

Harold Land

Harold de Vance Land was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style. His tone was strong and emotional, yet displayed a certain fragility that made him easy to...

• Mapenzi
  Mapenzi
  -Track listing:# "Mapenzi" - 5:15# "Rapture" - 5:08# "Habiba" - 10:19# "Blue Silver" - 4:58# "Everything's Changed" - 5:13# "Inner Voice" - 6:08# "Tres Senderos" - 5:29...
  
  (Concord, 1977)