Albert Stinson

Who was Albert Stinson?

Albert Stinson was an American jazz double-bassist.

Stinson learned to play piano, trombone, and tuba before settling on bass at age 14. After his graduation from John Muir High School in Pasadena, California in 1962, he began playing professionally in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, working with Terry Gibbs, Frank Rosolino, Chico Hamilton, and Charles Lloyd. Later in the decade he worked with Larry Coryell, John Handy, Miles Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, and Gerald Wilson's LA-based big band. His ebullient personality, bright tone and aggressive attack all contributed to his being nicknamed "Sparky".

Stinson died on tour of a drug overdose in 1969 at the age of 24. He never recorded as a leader but appears on Hamilton's Impulse! releases, Hutcherson's Blue Note release Oblique, and Handy's Koch Records release New View! Albert also appears on Clare Fischer's album Surging Ahead.