Gerald Anthony Albright was born in Los Angeles on August 30, 1957, and grew up in the city's South Central and Watts district, the second child of William and Mattie Albright. The house ran on gospel and soul records, and he was a child when the Watts riots of 1965 shook the neighborhood, an experience he has said made family and community matter more to him. He took piano lessons without much enthusiasm until his piano teacher gave him a saxophone. At Locke High School, teachers brought in visiting players for seminars, among them the reed player Yusef Lateef, and ran the Msingi Workshops, where students played charts associated with Thad Jones and Gerald Wilson. Albright has described that program as the place where he learned to blend in a section.

He went on to the University of Redlands, where he studied business with a music minor and graduated in 1979. By then he had added a second instrument: after seeing Louis Johnson of the Brothers Johnson in concert he took up bass guitar, and he has named Anthony Jackson, Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller as the players who gave him the incentive to keep at it. A few months after graduating he joined Patrice Rushen as she put together her touring band, at first on saxophone. When her bassist left in the middle of a tour, Albright took over the bass chair and finished the run on bass guitar. He stayed with Rushen for about five years, and on her records he is credited on saxophone on Straight from the Heart (1982), takes a saxophone solo on "Heartache Heartbreak" on Now (1984) and is credited on bass on "Get Off (You Fascinate Me)" from the same album.

Playing both saxophone and bass, he became a first-call session and touring musician in the 1980s. Discogs credits him on records by Teena Marie (It Must Be Magic, 1981), Maurice White (the saxophone on "Jamboree" from White's 1985 solo album), Ray Parker Jr. (a saxophone solo on "You Shoulda Kept a Spare" from After Dark, 1987), Atlantic Starr (solos on two tracks of All in the Name of Love, 1987), Anita Baker (Giving You the Best That I Got, 1988), Olivia Newton-John (The Rumour, 1988) and the Temptations (Special, 1989). He has also toured with Anita Baker, Phil Collins, Johnny Hallyday, Whitney Houston, Quincy Jones, Jeff Lorber and Teena Marie, and has played Jazz Explosion package tours alongside Will Downing, Jonathan Butler, Chaka Khan, Hugh Masekela and Rachelle Ferrell.

After roughly eight years of road and studio work he wrote and played a demo himself and took it to Atlantic Records in 1987, where Sylvia Rhone signed him. His debut Just Between Us (Atlantic, released October 27, 1987) was produced by Albright, with keyboards from Rushen, Bobby Lyle and Rodney Franklin and drums by Harvey Mason. Its single "So Amazing," a Luther Vandross song, reached No. 12 on Billboard's Hot Black Singles chart and earned his first Grammy nomination, for Best R&B Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group or Soloist) at the 31st Grammy Awards. Bermuda Nights (1988) brought a second nomination in the same category at the 32nd, and Dream Come True (1990), with BeBe Winans singing on its closing track, spent three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. Live at Birdland West (1991), recorded in Long Beach, California and dedicated to Cannonball Adderley, was his answer to listeners who filed him as an R&B player only, a live set that includes "Georgia on My Mind" and John Coltrane's "Impressions." In January 1993 he was one of ten saxophonists chosen to play at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, standing, as he later recalled, beside players he had grown up admiring, including Grover Washington Jr., Gerry Mulligan and Michael Brecker. Smooth (1994) reached No. 2 on both the Jazz Albums and Contemporary Jazz Albums charts, and Giving Myself to You (1995) and Live to Love (1997) completed seven Atlantic albums.

Collaboration became a second thread. In 1992 he played tenor saxophone on two tracks of Norman Brown's debut, also titled Just Between Us. On Urban Knights II (GRP, 1997), the all-star band led by Ramsey Lewis and produced by Maurice White, he and Najee were the saxophone voices. In 1998 he toured Europe and the United States in Phil Collins's big band, and the live album A Hot Night in Paris (Atlantic, 1999) credits him as featured alto saxophonist and soloist on "Sussudio" and "Chips & Salsa," the second of which he also arranged. His duet album with the vocalist Will Downing, Pleasures of the Night (Verve Forecast, 1998), reached No. 1 on Billboard's Jazz Albums and Contemporary Jazz Albums charts.

He moved to GRP for Groovology (2002) and Kickin' It Up (2004), then to Peak Records for New Beginnings (2006) and Sax for Stax (2008), a tribute to the Memphis label's catalog with guests Will Downing, Ledisi, Philip Bailey and Kirk Whalum and liner notes by George Duke. Pushing the Envelope (Heads Up, 2010) was followed by the duo album 24/7 with Norman Brown (Concord, 2012), whose singles "In the Moment" and "Champagne Life" both reached No. 1 on Billboard's Smooth Jazz Airplay chart, and by Summer Horns (Concord, 2013), a four-saxophone album led by Dave Koz with Albright, Mindi Abair and Richard Elliot. Slam Dunk (Heads Up, 2014) followed. Grammy.com lists nine nominations for Albright and no wins: the two R&B instrumental nominations above, Best Pop Instrumental Album for New Beginnings, Sax for Stax, Pushing the Envelope, 24/7 and Summer Horns, Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for Slam Dunk, and, at the 65th Grammy Awards in 2023, Best Improvised Jazz Solo for his playing on Hank Bilal's "Keep Holding On."

Since 2016 his own albums have come out on Bright Music Records: G (2016), 30 (2018), which marked thirty years since his debut, the holiday album Not So Silent Night (2019) and three EPs in the G-Stream series (2020, 2022 and 2024). His most recent release is the three-song Hot Chocolate EP (February 27, 2026), which his official site calls his 24th career project and which features the vocalist Lalah Hathaway. His daughter Selina Albright, a singer, appears on several of his records, including Sax for Stax and 24/7. As of November 2026 his official site lists concert dates through April 2027 and says he is also available for bass guitar sessions and tours.

Albright's primary voice is the alto saxophone, with a bright, rhythmic attack that he traces to the gospel, Motown, Philadelphia soul and James Brown records of his Los Angeles youth and above all to Maceo Parker, whom he has described as a saxophonist who plays like a drummer. His jazz lineage runs through Cannonball Adderley, the soul-jazz alto player he dedicated Live at Birdland West to, and through Stanley Turrentine and Grover Washington Jr., the tenor and soprano voices he listened to in college while trying to find a sound of his own. He doubles on tenor, soprano and baritone saxophones, flute, bass guitar and, on 24/7, the EWI wind controller, and he has produced or co-produced most of his own albums.

His commercial home is smooth jazz and contemporary R&B, and that is stated plainly here: his singles are built for Billboard's Smooth Jazz Airplay chart, where a long run of them reached No. 1, and his albums lean on vocal guests, programmed rhythm tracks and cover versions of soul hits such as the Stax catalog on Sax for Stax and James Brown's "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World" on Slam Dunk. The jazz side is real and documented: a high school education that included Thad Jones charts and seminars with Yusef Lateef, a long stretch in Patrice Rushen's band, a featured alto chair on a Quincy Jones record (Back on the Block, 1989), solo spots with Kirk Whalum and Stanley Clarke, and a live album, Live at Birdland West, built around improvisation. His own summary is that he wants a listener to hear different textures, rhythms and moods across an album.