Alan was born in Jersey City, NJ in 1961. His father was a country and western singer and his mother always had a love for music. When Alan was three his parents took him and his two older brothers Michael and Peter to a drum and bugle corps contest in Jersey City. Alan loved it. When the family moved to Edison N.J. his father helped start up a local drum corps called The Saints. Alan, being too young at the time, had to wait until he was 9 yrs old to join. Hearing his two brothers practice all the time, Alan got horn playing in his blood. Alan stayed in the corps, eventually being one of the corps soloist’s until 1977 when the corps disbanded.

Looking for another venue to play the horn, Alan stayed with drum corps, joining the Garfield Cadets from 1978-1982. Traveling all over the country with the corps in the summer months, Alan looked for places to play during the winter. He joined up with Jon Bon Jovi in 1979, starting the band The Atlantic City Expressway. The band played all the Jersey shore clubs (although no member of the band was over 17) for about 5 years.

After high school, Alan got an offer to go on the road with another local band, La Bamba and the Hubcaps. His mom told him to quit his job at an electrical supply store and off he went.

Alan met up with Paul Shaffer and Will Lee in a club in New York in 1986 and was asked along with his horn partner Bruce Kapler to do some touring with "The Worlds Most Dangerous Band". They performed for about two years at such venues as the Jacksonville Jazz Festival and the Summerfest Festival in Wisconsin.

After a few years of playing clubs in the NJ/NY area, Alan ventured out, playing with the California based bands Tower of Power from 1988-1992 and The Robert Cray Band from 1994-1995.

After years of sitting in with Paul Shaffer on The Late Show with David Letterman, Alan was asked to join the band full time in February 1997.