Kirk Lightsey

Kirkland " Kirk " Lightsey (* February 15, 1937 in Detroit ) is an American pianist and composer of modern jazz.

Life and work

Kirk Lightsey had piano lessons as a child and studied at school and college in addition clarinet. Among his musical heroes from this period included Earl Hines, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. He accompanied in clubs passing through, Stars, entered while serving in the U.S. Army to inter alia with Cannonball Adderley and came to New York, where he worked for Ernestine Anderson along with Melba Liston. Later he went back to Detroit and accompanied in the Motown studios many pop singers, but also collaborated with jazz musicians like Yusef Lateef, Dexter Gordon, Betty Carter, and later also with Pharoah Sanders, Bobby Hutcherson, Sonny Stitt and Kenny Burrell. From 1979 to 1983 he was a member of Dexter Gordon's band, otherwise mostly worked as a freelance musician.

Since the 1980s, he took a number of albums under his own name; so was with Harold Danko 1984 Duo - production with Wayne Shorter compositions. Kirk Lightsey also appeared frequently as a solo pianist. He was also a member of the band The Leaders, which also included Lester Bowie, Arthur Blythe, Chico Freeman, Cecil McBee and Don Moye Famoudou. With the rhythm section he formed the trio Leaders. In the 1980s he was a sideman on recordings on the Criss Cross Jazz label of Jimmy Raney, Peter Leitch, Brian Lynch and Clifford Jordan.

Kirk Lightsey belongs to the generation of pianists of neo- bop and the new traditionalism, which play in the tradition of McCoy Tyner .. Lightsey describes himself as a pianist Bud Powell, a consciousness, an Art Tatum styling, a bebop feeling and a pianistic view links. He is thus in close proximity to Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan.

Auswahldiskographie

Recordings as a leader

Recordings as a sideman

  • Chet Baker: Groovin ', Comin', Cool Burnin ', Boppin ' with the Chet Baker Quintet ( Prestige, 1965)
  • Jeri Brown: " Unfolding " The Peacocks (1992 )
  • Sonny Fortune: Monk's Mood ( nexus, 1993)
  • Louis Hayes: The Super Quartet ( Timeless, 1994)
  • Clifford Jordan: Two Tenor Winner ( Criss Cross, 1984)
  • Harold Land: Mapunzi ( Concord, 1977)
  • The Leaders: Mudfoot ( Black Saint, 1986)
  • Peter Leitch: Red Zone (Reservoir 1984 /88)
  • Bryan Lynch: Peer Pressure ( Criss Cross, 1986)
  • Jimmy Raney: The Master ( Criss Cross, 1983)
  • Jim Pepper: Dakota Song ( Enja ), The Path ' ( Enja )
  • Sahib Shihab: It Could not Happen Without You ( Soul Note, 1984)
  • Woody Shaw: Solid ( Camden, 1974-1987 )
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