Alvin "AJ" Jackson is a jazz bassist. His first performances were in a high school band with his younger brother, Milt Jackson, , Lucky Thompson, Art Mardigan, and George Sirhagen, c. 1939-40. About 1947, he was playing with Tommy Flanagan’s trio with Kenny Burrell, before briefly joining the house band led by Billy Mitchell at Detroit's Blue Bird Inn, before leading it himself in 1955. The Billy Mitchell-led house band comprised Flanagan, Tate Houston and Milt Jackson, who had just returned from touring with Woody Herman.