Alvin Atkinson, Jr., drummer, bandleader, and educator, brings love, spirituality, and peace to audiences in his performances. His proficient skill as a drummer has taken him on stage and into the recording studio with numerous bandleaders including Wycliffe Gordon, Vanessa Ruben, Eve Cornelious, Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Ernie Andrews, Cecil Bridgewater, and many others. He formed Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants in New York City in 2004. The group's first recording project, Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants received nominations for “Best International Jazz Song” from the First Annual 2007 Toronto Exclusive Magazine Awards and “Best Jazz Song” from the Seventh Annual Independent Music Awards in 2007 for the composition Dance of the Emirates. Musically, the group combines jazz and blues influences with inflections of various rhythms and melodies.
Alvin first drew national media attention when, as a Jazz Ambassador, he toured West Africa with the Cynthia Scott Quartet in the American Music Abroad Program with the Kennedy Center. Subsequently, he joined Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad Program with his own group, Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants, performing and conducting master classes in several countries around the world featuring America’s classical music. The group visited cities in South America, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Russia. Additionally, through the Kennedy Center’s Harlem tour, he toured extensively across the United States. Alvin initially found his passion for teaching music as a student at North Carolina Central University under the tutelage of Ira Wiggins. As a professional drummer and educator, Alvin has taught music workshops in front of large audiences (Jazz at Lincoln Center’s, Jazz for Young People), and has worked as an adjunct professor in colleges and universities (University of Manitoba, New School University, UNC Wilmington, and UNC-Chapel Hill). He has also worked with children in middle schools (Director of JALC’s Middle School Jazz Academy and Assistant Director of Arts at Harlem Children Zone Promise Academies). Currently, Alvin attends Teachers College in the Music and Music Education Program.
