He is a trumpeter born Albert Aarons in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania who studied at Detroit's Wayne State University and shouldn't
be confused with the backing singer of the same name.In 1956 when he was 23 or 24 years
old he began to make his name known as a trumpeter and by the time 1960
came along he was in Detroit performing with the pianist Barry Harris and
Yusef Lateef.He briefly
accompanied Wild Bill Davis the jazz organist and then in 1961 became a
member of the Count Basie Orchestra where he would stay for the next 8
years.Going
on to work as a sideman and studio musician for various artists in
Los Angeles in the 1970s in music from from jazz to jazz fusion to
disco, he could be heard performing with artists such as Gene
Ammons, Stanley Clarke, Buddy Collette, Ella Fitzgerald, The Gap
Band
, Henry Mancini, Maria Muldaur, Zoot
Sims, Sarah Vaughan and Gerald Wilson among many others and he also
established his own Legend record label.Albums he has appeared on are his own Al Aarons &
The L.A. Jazz Caravan, and School Days by Stanley Clarke, Sinatra-Basie by Frank
Sinatra
& Count Basie, On the Sunny Side of the Street
by Ella Fitzgerald, Together Again...Live by Bobby Bland & B.B.
King, Peach Melba by Melba Moore, We Meet Again by Martha
Reeves, Porgy & Bess by Cleo Laine & Ray Charles, Sweet
Harmony by Maria Muldaur, Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones
by Quincy Jones, Rhymes & Reasons by Carole King, Round
Midnight by Mel
Torme , Soul on Top by James Brown, Nexus
by Gene Harris, Now and Then by Buddy Collette, Passion Flower
by Zoot Sims, Wild & Swingin', Straight Ahead and Stages by
Count Basie, With Michel LeGrand, Rita
Coolidge and The Gap
Band.In the movies he appeared as a
trumpeter in the 1981 film Quartet.
