Albert Clifton Ammons (March 1, 1907 – December 2, 1949)[1] was an American pianist and player of boogie-woogie, a blues style popular from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s.

From the age of ten, Ammons learned about chords by marking the depressed keys on the family pianola (player piano) with a pencil and repeated the process until he had mastered it.

After World War I he became interested in the blues, learning by listening to the Chicago pianists Hersal Thomas and the brothers Alonzo and Jimmy Yancey.

[5] The two performed regularly at the Café Society,[5] occasionally joined by Lewis or by other jazz musicians, including Benny Goodman and Harry James.

On December 23, 1938, Ammons appeared at Carnegie Hall with Johnson and Lewis in From Spirituals to Swing, a concert produced by John H. Hammond, which helped launch the boogie-woogie craze.

Ammons has had a wide influence on countless pianists, such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Dave Alexander, Dr. John, Hadda Brooks, Johnnie Johnson, Ray Bryant, Erroll Garner, Katie Webster and Axel Zwingenberger.