Bio:
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.(Saint Augustine) Yes, Shaun Martin has a natural gift that has been evident since he began playing drums in church at the age of 4. Yes, his mother had the vision to arrange piano instruction from Carolyn Campbell and guide him on his path. Yes, he has several Grammys from his work with Kirk Franklin and the gospel powerhouse God’s Property and Yes, he has a Grammy that crowns his many years with jazz fusion phenomenon Snarky Puppy. But you will not find this information in discussion with this gently powerful man because he wears none of this on his sleeve.
Shaun Martin has been playing, creating, and collaborating for most of his life, yet his contributions go much further than just playing. When you move through the projects that Shaun has been a part of you can feel his style and influence; you can sense his presence throughout the compositions. Shaun’s willingness and ability to be a subtle part of each band has allowed him to be part of the very foundation.
Seven years ago Shaun began a project of his own. A story of his life, a contribution to the world of music from his eyes (and ears). In demand by many, Shaun took his time with the album as the story expanded to include a wider range of experience. And so, on July 7th 2015, Mr. Martin presented to the world SEVEN SUMMERS - a big chapter in the history of the great Shaun Martin. Seven Years. Seven Summers.
Quotes, Notes & Etc.
Credits and Credentials
Artists: Kirk Franklin, Snarky Puppy, Erykah Badu, Chaka Kahn, Fred Hammond, God’s Property, Kim Burrell, Yolanda Adams, Timbaland, The Weeknd, Tamela Mann...
Grammy Awards: Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album (Hero) Best Gospel Album (Hello Fear) Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album (Fight Of My Life) Best R & B Performance (Snarky Puppy & Lalah Hathaway)
Production Credits: Mama’s Gun (Erykah Badu) Guru’s Jazzamatazz Streetsoul (Erykah Badu, Guru) Hero (Kirk Franklin) Fight Of My Life (Kirk Franklin) Hello Fear (Kirk Franklin) Here Right Now (Tasha Page- Lockhart) Fast Forward (The Walls Group) I Will Trust (Fred Hammond) United Tenors- (Fred Hammond, Dave Hollister, Eric Roberson, Bryan Courtney-Wilson) Take Me To The King (Tamela Mann)
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).