Ali Jackson (jazz drummer)

Ali Jackson, Jr. (born April 3, 1976) is an American jazz drummer.

His mother, a classical pianist, taught him piano and how to read music at the age of four. His father, bass player Ali Jackson, Sr., taught him music theory and gave him drum lessons from rudiment books. Jackson attended Detroit's prestigious Cass Technical High School. He then attended The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, earning a BA in composition. He privately studied with master teachers, Elvin Jones and Max Roach.

Jackson has performed and recorded with musicians including Wynton Marsalis, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, James Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Harry Connick Jr., KRS-One, Marcus Roberts, Cyrus Chestnut, Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Diana Krall.

He is currently the drummer for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Discography as leader

• Amalgamations
• Yes!
• Wheelz Keep Rollin
• Big Brown Get Down, Volume 1
• Jazz en Tete

As sideman

With James Carter

• Gold Sounds (Brown Brothers, 2005)

With Wynton Marsalis

• Two Men with the Blues featuring Willie Nelson
• Plane, Trane and a Chicken Wing
• From the Plantation to the Penitentiary

With Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra

• Congo Square Orchestra and O'Dada

With Joshua Redman

• Back East