He was a member of the Billy Eckstine and Woody Herman bands in the mid to late 1940s, and then in 1950 formed a duet with Sonny Stitt. His later career was interrupted by two prison sentences for narcotics possession, the first from 1958 to 1960, the second from 1962 too 1969.
Ammons and Von Freeman were the founders of the Chicago School of tenor saxophone.