American three-time Grammy winning jazz guitarist.

Born May 22, 1955 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Alford began his care as a guitarist for gospel quartets, including The Mighty Clouds Of Joy and The Truetones, and went on to become one of the secret weapons of the neo-soul movement, lending not only his musical skills, but spiritual guidance to albums by Raphael Saadiq, D'Angelo, and The Roots. One of Alford’s final projects was “[m=141253]” by the soul singer Al Green, which was produced by the Roots’ drummer Ahmir ’?uestlove’ Thompson.

Alford died March 24, 2008, at the age of 52, in Huntsville, Alabama after a long battle with diabetes.