Kai Lyons

Kai Lyons brings a lifetime of San Francisco roots and global musical curiosity to The Deluxe — a guitarist raised in the Excelsior District who went on to study at William Paterson University on full scholarship under the direction of the late Mulgrew Miller, learning from masters Vincent Herring, Gene Bertoncini, Harold Mabern, Rich Perry, and Hal Galper before completing his BA at San Francisco State University with Andrew Speight, Michael Zisman, and Hafez Modirzadeh. Since returning to the Bay Area in 2015, he has freelanced extensively while making frequent musical pilgrimages to New York City, New Orleans, Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean, and Ghana — where he participated in the Orff-Afrique Master Class in 2018. A collaborator with Mike Clark and Donald Harrison of Herbie Hancock’s Original Headhunters, Karl Perazzo, John Santos, organist Wil Blades, Larry Vuckovich, and the San Francisco Ballet, Lyons brings a richly cosmopolitan perspective to every performance.