Albert L. Murray (born May 12, 1916 in Nokomis, Alabama ) is an African American literary and jazz critic, novelist and biographer.

He attended the Tuskegee Institute and received a Bachelors degree in 1939, and his M.A. from New York University in 1948. In 1943 he entered the U.S. Air Force, from which he retired as a major in 1962.

His writing career began in earnest in 1962, when he retired from the military. His first book The Omni-Americans (1970) was critically acclaimed.

He is the cofounder of Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis. He is also the author of essay collection The Blue Devils of Nada (1996), The Seven League Boots (1996), novel Train Whistle Guitar (1974), South to a Very Old Place (1971), Stomping the Blues (1976), The Spyglass Tree (1991). He also co-wrote Count Basie's autobiography Good Morning Blues (1985).