[5][6] Speight was originally from Sydney, Australia, where he was able to perform with touring musicians including Benny Carter and Nat Adderley.
[8] Speight was a sideman on the album Marsalis Music Honors Series: Jimmy Cobb (2006),[9] described by All About Jazz as "highly acclaimed.
[9] At the 2011 Stanford Jazz Festival, he performed a recreation of the Bird with Strings album originally recorded by Charlie Parker.
[10] In March 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Speight launched the first of 117 consecutive weekly live sessions streamed to Facebook from bassist Jeff Saxton's residence.
[11] The sessions hosted a number of well-regarded guest musicians as well as Speight's students from San Francisco State University.