Transcript of "Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants" podcast feature

ATKINSON
I came up with the name "The Sound Merchants" because it was a group that I wanted to put together because I think all musicians are sound merchants, you know, because we travel around and we exchange our vibe and spirit for sound. So I just kind of look at every musician as a sound merchant and that seemed to be a perfect name for this group. These guys are so well-versed on their instruments and so versatile and play at such a high level that I thought they would be perfect representatives of the sound merchants.

ATKINSON
We really played for them like we were in New York. I always say, I call it "twinkling through the tulips" when you allow yourself to be musically condescending to people. Play to them as if they don't know. I played to them as if they're jazz aficionados, and they love it, because they can tell you respect them. You're giving them your best like they give their best to us.

ATKINSON
I actually named a few of the songs while we were out there. I kind of had mock names for them before I left, but I was inspired while I was there and it kind of gave them a little more substance. Like there was one tune we wrote called "The Journey of Ibn Battuta," and that rang highly with them, because he was like the Marco Polo of the Middle East. And when you said that, it was just like mentioning Michael Jackson or anybody, you know. I mean, it was like a really great thing, so that resonated with people, and there was a song we did called "Dance of the Emirates," and that song, really... There was a Secretary of Defense in Saudi Arabia came to me with tears in his eyes and said, "I've been here for a few years and what you just did in the concert just totally matched that from that standpoint, because you really connected." He said, "I've never seen Saudi Arabians respond to music like that." Because I would do a chant in this song, and the chant would be, "God is watching over you." So when I'm saying "watching over you," the band is playing. And they're responding to me. But the amazing thing is that I'm not only saying, "America, God is watching over you," I say, "Saudi Arabia, Jenda, God is watching over you." And everywhere we went I would mention that God is watching over them. You know, and it would be talking about the elders that are here and that have passed on. And that song would just bring so many tears. People would come to us, you know, with tears in their eyes. 

ATKINSON
With this tune in particular, it had a lot of energy. So it dealt with fire and rain and snow, I mean it dealt with so many different energies, because you could hear the solemness, but yet you could hear screams and cries and bombs. You could hear war in this tune. And we would like have moment of just pure war going on in this tune, and then it would come down to the most calming ooze, which is a prayer. It would be like a prayer. And I think with all of that going on, people could relate to that.