Al began musical life playing the cornet & piano from approximately the age of six. Years of practice progressing through trumpet, tenor horn & french horn in many local wind bands, jazz bands, orchestras, brass bands and anything else that was going eventually led to playing keys in a high school pop group, as you'd obviously expect. Somewhat ahead of its time, perhaps, this band played everything from Green Dolphin Street to Stairway to Heaven. Al taught himself electric & bass guitar at this point for the express purpose of stealing all the best bits from the real bass & guitar players in the band. Even more bizarrely he actually got away with it.
Al took a music degree at Colchester Institute and a PGCE at Bretton Hall before returning to Exeter where he began playing bass for the Devon Youth Jazz Orchestra on a temporary basis that ended up lasting several years. During this time he had the good fortune to back many excellent players at the Teignmouth Jazz festival including - Greg Abate, Alan Barnes, Bobby Shew, Steve Waterman & Bill Watrous. Around this time he also joined his first (grammatically challenged) soul band, Dodgey Practice, and also formed a writing partnership with Nick Lee, under the band name Foundations Edge , to write & record original progressive rock. Since then Al has been a member of many local bands including
Aesculus Hipp,
Neil Burns Trio ,
Cantaloupe ,
Chris Wilson's Exe City Big Band,
Paul Harris Trio,
Killer Whale ,
Jesse Molins Trio ,Harry Mundy Band ,Maggie Reeday Trio ,
Rifiki,
Sam Elliott Big Band,
Scream Machine and
Soul Station .
Al is currently chief arranger and/or composer for original modern jazz quintet Monkey's Uncle , his own seven piece jazz fusion outfit
Time Wasters , disco/funk/pop function band Power of Time Monkeys and The Art Trip (a tribute to Art Pepper).
Al has also had the good fortune to work with many other excellent local luminaries including AJ's Big Band, Andrew Barrett, Rachel Brand, Becky Brine, The Brit Pack, AJ's Caravan Band, Otto Caretta, Andy Christie, City Steam Jazz Band, George Cooper, Martin Dale Quartet, Gary Evans, Harry Fulcher, Maxine Green, Tony Harris Quartet, Charlie Hearnshaw Quartet, Roz Harding, Jeremy Huggett's Band of Gold, The Jazz Company, Steve Laister, Lush Life, Roger Marks' Armada Jazz Band, Craig Milverton , Mint Julep, Dave Murphy Quintet, Dhevdas Nair, The Organisation, Joy Parke, Louise Parker , Dave Sheen, James Shipway Quartet, Solar, Nicky Swann , John Worth, and Bristol based Puravida y Acustica
Other career highlights have included playing alongside Greg Abate, Brandon Allen, Alan Barnes, John Barnes, Ian Bateman, Frank Brooker, Philip Clouts, Sara Colman, Mike Cotton, Ben Cummings, Ian Ellis, John Etheridge, Digby Fairweather, John Hallam, Ruth Hammond , Claire Hurst, Steve Lodder, Alex Maguire, Roger Marks, Nick Milward, Paul Munnery, Mark Nightingale, Dave O'Higgins, Gary Potter, Raf Ravenscroft , Don Rendell, Zoltan Sagi, Matthias Seuffert, Karen Sharp, Dave Shepherd, Julian Marc Stringle, Scott Stroman, Carol Sudhalter , Enrico Tomasso, Clark Tracey, Andy Tween, Don Weller and Roy Williams.
Al recently concluded an open jazz jam session that had been running weekly since it was started by Al, Gary Evans & Jesse Molins from 2004-2008.
Al's recorded discography so far includes:
Foundations Edge - Foundations Edge (1997)
Aesculus Hipp - Forget Me Not Rebel (2001)
Jerri Hart - The Nightless Night (2005)
Toby Williams - Just Want to Say (2005)
Monkey's Uncle - Lost in Limbo (2005)
Cantaloupe - Band for Hire (2006)
Time Wasters - Welcome to Wasteland (2007)
LVM Publishing - The Girl In Blue (2007)
Chris Wilson's Exe City Big Band - Leave Us Leap (2007)
Picnic (2007)
Jesse Molins Trio - Jesse Molins Trio (2007)
The Art Trip - Because We Like It (2009)
Toby Williams - The EP (2009)
Music for the short film 'The Nightless Night of Jerri Hart'
by Ben Sherriff (2005)
Selected producers/recording engineers Al has had the very good fortune to work for/record with include:
Phil Beer
Tim Powell Morris
Malcolm Toft
Mark Tucker
Al has also arranged and recorded five musicals so far,
written for children, by Peter Kyrke Smith:
Company of Wolves(2003)
The Selfish Giant (2004)
Sleeping Beauty (2005)
Moose (2006)
The Angels Who Couldn't Fly (2006)
Incidental music for the Northcott Theatre Company production of
Romeo & Juliet : Shakespeare in the Park (2002)
has performed pit duties in productions of:
Jesus Christ Superstar (1997)
Children of Eden (1999/2000)
Fame (2002)
My Baby Just Cares For Me (2003)
Songs for a New World (2003)
Godspell (2003/2004)
Seussical (2006)
and appeared with touring productions:
Bachelor Boy (2004/2005)
Rocking with Laughter - A Tribute to Matt Monro (2005/2006)
Ego Mania (2006)
Unforgettable (2007)
The Rat Pack - Vegas Spectacular (2009 - )