Al Lucas was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 double-bassist.

Lucas's mother was a concert pianist, and he took lessons from her as a child, eventually switching to bass and tuba at age 12. After moving to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, Lucas played with Kaiser Marshall

Kaiser Marshall

Joseph "Kaiser" Marshall was an American jazz drummer.Marshall was raised in Boston, where he studied under George L. Stone. He played with Charlie Dixon before moving to New York City early in the 1920s...

, then joined the Royal Sunset Orchestra, where he played from 1933 to 1942. During the 1940s Lucas appeared on record with Hot Lips Page, Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...

, Eddie Heywood

Eddie Heywood

Eddie Heywood was a jazz pianist who was popular in the 1940s. His father, Eddie Heyward, Sr. was also a jazz musician from the 1920s. Heywood, Jr...

 (1944–45), Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

 (1945), Mary Lou Williams

Mary Lou Williams

Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Williams wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records...

 (1946), James P. Johnson

James P. Johnson

James P. Johnson was an American pianist and composer...

, J.J. Johnson

J.J. Johnson

J. J. Johnson was a United States jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. He was sometimes credited as Jay Jay Johnson....

, Ben Webster

Ben Webster

Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...

, Erroll Garner

Erroll Garner

Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard...

, and Eddie South

Eddie South

Eddie South was an American jazz violinist.-Biography:South was a classical violin prodigy who switched to jazz because of limited opportunities for African-American musicians, and started his career playing in vaudeville and jazz orchestras with Freddie Keppard, Jimmy Wade, Charles Elgar, and...

.

He toured and recorded with Illinois Jacquet

Illinois Jacquet

Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo....

 from 1947–53, recording in Detroit with Jaquet's all-star band which included Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt

Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...

, Leo Parker

Leo Parker

Leo Parker was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.Parker studied alto saxophone in high school, and played this instrument on a recording with Coleman Hawkins in 1944. He switched to baritone saxophone later that year when he joined Billy Eckstine's bebop band, playing there until 1946...

, Sir Charles Thompson, Maurice Simon

Maurice Simon

Maurice James Simon is a jazz saxophonist.A high school classmate of Eric Dolphy Simon appears on an early 1945 Los Angeles recording in a band led by Russell "Illinois" Jacquet and which also included Teddy Edwards, Charles Mingus, Bill Davis and Chico Hamilton.In 1948, again with Jacquet as...

 and Shadow Wilson

Shadow Wilson

Rossiere "Shadow" Wilson was an American jazz drummer.Much of Wilson's early work was with swing jazz orchestras. He played with Lucky Millinder in 1939, and following this with Benny Carter, Tiny Bradshaw, Lionel Hampton, Earl Hines, Count Basie, and Woody Herman...

before returning to play with Heywood again from 1954–56. He also recorded in the 1950s with Ruby Braff

Ruby Braff

Reuben "Ruby" Braff was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist. Jack Teagarden was once asked about him on the Gary Moore TV show and described Ruby as "The Ivy League Louis Armstrong."Braff was born in Boston...

, Charlie Byrd

Charlie Byrd

Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...

, and Teddy Wilson

Teddy Wilson

Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson was an American jazz pianist whose sophisticated and elegant style was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.-Biography:Wilson was born in Austin, Texas in...

. He worked primarily as a studio musician in his last two decades, playing jazz only occasionally.