Steve Kirby 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...

 bassist.

Kirby was born in Maumee Valley, Ohio, and his family moved to St. Louis when he was two. He picked up guitar and electric bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 while stationed at Fort Bragg

Fort Bragg (North Carolina)

Fort Bragg is a major United States Army installation, in Cumberland and Hoke counties, North Carolina, U.S., mostly in Fayetteville but also partly in the town of Spring Lake. It was also a census-designated place in the 2010 census and had a population of 39,457. The fort is named for Confederate...

, and following this he attended Webster University

Webster University

Webster University is an American non-profit private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Webster University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools...

, receiving his BA in 1985. He worked locally in various ensembles and then got his master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

, where he played with Lester Bowie

Lester Bowie

Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the AACM, and cofounded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Biography:...

. In 1988 he returned to Webster, where he taught until 1993, and while there he won the 1992 Hennessy Jazz Search. In 1993 he returned to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and played with Oliver Lake

Oliver Lake

Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer and poet. He is known mainly on alto saxophone but also performs on soprano saxophone and flute....

, Claudio Roditi

Claudio Roditi

Claudio Roditi is a Brazilian jazz trumpeter.After arriving in the United States in 1970, he began to study at Berklee School of Music, where he became musically influenced by Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan...

, John Hicks

John Hicks (jazz pianist)

John Josephus Hicks, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and composer, active in the New York and the international jazz scene from the mid-1960s.-Biography:...

, Slide Hampton

Slide Hampton

Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...

, Antonio Hart

Antonio Hart

Antonio Hart is a jazz alto saxophonist. He attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, studied with Andy McGhee at Berklee College of Music, and has a master's degree from Queens College, City University of New York. His initial training was classical, but he switched to jazz in college...

, Cyrus Chestnut

Cyrus Chestnut

Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, songwriter, and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time Magazine, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space." Chestnut enjoys mixing styles and resists being...

, Joanne Brackeen

Joanne Brackeen

Joanne Brackeen is an American jazz pianist and music educator.-Biography:She was born Joanne Grogan in Ventura, California. She attended the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, but devoted herself to jazz by imitating Frankie Carle albums...

, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Wallace Roney

Wallace Roney

Wallace Roney is an American hard bop and post-bop trumpeter.Roney took lessons from Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie and studied with Miles Davis from 1985 until the latter's death in 1991...

, Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones

Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....

, Kenny Barron

Kenny Barron

Kenny Barron , is an American jazz pianist. He is the younger brother of tenor saxophonist Bill Barron, and known for his lyrical, adaptive style.-Biography:...

, Wycliffe Gordon

Wycliffe Gordon

Wycliffe Gordon is a jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, trumpet, tuba, piano and sings.In 1995, he re-orchestrated the theme song for NPR's All Things Considered...

, Steve Turre

Steve Turre

Steve Turre is a trombonist, recording artist, arranger, and educator. In 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006 he won the Down Beat Reader's Poll for best trombonist....

, James Carter

James Carter (musician)

James Carter is an American jazz musician.Carter was born in Detroit, Michigan and learned to play there before moving to New York City. He has been prominent as a performer and recording artist on the jazz scene since the mid-1990s, playing saxophones, flute, and bass clarinet...

, and Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson

Wesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....

.

Kirby currently resides in Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and is the head of the Jazz Studies program at the University of Manitoba

University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

. In 2008 Steve released his first album as a leader "Wicked Grin" with Larry Roy, Stefon Harris, Will Bonness, Terreon Gully

Terreon Gully

- Career :Gully has performed with various musicians and genres, including the Christian McBride Band, saxophonist Ron Blake, vibrophonist Stefon Harris and Latin band Yerba Buena....

, and his wife Anna-Lisa Kirby.

He is the brother-in-law of singer Lullaby Baxter

Lullaby Baxter

Lullaby Baxter is a Canadian jazz singer. Her first album, Capable Egg, was released in 2000 by Atlantic Records, and her 2006 album Garden Cities of To-morrow was released by Boompa Records....

.