Internationally acclaimed entertainer Remembered
“Want some Fuel City Tacos or somethin’? Still in the studio man, four o’clock in the morning, gotta get it. So, this song right here goes out to everybody that’s on their hustle, tryna chase their dream. We do this cuz we’re true to this! Come on, Geno!
– Shaun Martin’s prologue to “All in a Day’s Work!”
“Oh, RC (RC Williams)! Play something; I can’t take it.”
In all my life, I have never witnessed so many fond goodbyes. The Life, Labor, Love, and Legacy of Harold “Shaun” Martin” has enveloped this community, this nation, and an international chorus of music lovers. Shaun was genuinely loved.
Shaun was a musicologist in the most literal and figurative sense of the word. Musicology is the study of music,” encompassing all aspects of music in all cultures and all historical periods.”
Shaun “Fingers” Martin didn’t just study music in theory; he was a practitioner. And he was well worth the price of admission.
For Shaun Martin, perfecting music was all in a day’s work!
I encountered him at an early age while looking for the perfect piano teacher for my middle child, Alison.
Ms. Carolyn Campbell was my last stop and the most expensive one. She wanted to show off one of her star pupils to sell me on that high price tag. Whoever this so-called prodigy was, he better be good. $130 per month was a lot to come by in 1992.
At the piano sat a kid whose looks were not nearly as significant to me as the range of his talent. Ms. Campbell said that Harold Shaun Martin was one of her best; he was 14 and already playing for and directing a church choir.
Of course, by now, Shaun realized he was on stage and put on a classical musical exposition that sold me on her and him, too.
Only a psychic could have predicted at that moment that he would be a repeat offender and hold the world captive. Shaun Martin won a Grammy and repeated it several times, among other honors.
He held every audience captive whenever he put his head down and his hands on a key. He was a musical gangster, a beast! The art of performance was all in a day’s work for Shaun.
I was reintroduced to Shaun at Friendship-West Baptist Church at Alison’s insistence some years later. Shaun was as intense and deliberate in his quest for musical excellence at church. Wherever he sat on a stool was transformed.
For more than two decades, he spoiled our congregation. We waited restlessly each first Sunday for his organ solo during communion. Shaun was a master. He punctuated the tone wheels of that B3 while manipulating the drawbars to create soulful harmonies in octaves and key changes that would make the dead get up and walk. “The Blood will never lose its power!”
For Shaun, church anthems, hymns, and gospels were just elements of the devout Christianity his mother immersed him in. Electrifying a sacred service was all in a day’s work for him. His first album, 7 Summers, was dedicated to his parents. He was proud to tell me that he gained an appreciation of music in general by listening to his “dad’s records.”
But more than all that, Shaun was a wide-armed, unselfish sharer of his time, talent, and treasure. History will record that Shaun, like the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, carried and paid huge bands when he could have easily hoarded the money and moments for himself and his family.
If you haven’t been to a “Go-Go Party,” you have no idea how much internationally ranked talent is right here in Dallas, principally in Oak Cliff. Shaun gave everyone a chance to shine and a space to grow. Loving people was all in a day’s work for Shaun Martin.
Monica, the love of his life, gave him a gift beyond measure, and they named him Harlem. Once, during one of our regular checkups in November 2021, Shaun reached out to me to ask how I was doing. All of us who knew him kept in touch, but it was special to me when he initiated it. This text made me feel like somebody.
“Hey man…just checking on you! Are you good? Yeah, bro, how about you? “I’m good, man. I’m in Pisa doing this Euro tour. My wife and kid are great…Harlem calls me every morning and asks me where I am.” He punctuated the text with three laughing emojis.
Part of him was crying inside, and we both knew it. Good dads love being with their children, and he hated being away from his family. Carting luggage worldwide was much easier before he caressed the hands of his mini-me, a walking, breathing life born of love. But sometimes in life, being away from the ones you love most is all in a day’s work.
You would think that most of us could take losing Shaun after such a long illness and respite from the harsh lights he suffered for the sake of his work.
But this has been miserable for most who knew him or witnessed his musical majesty. However, nothing in his resume can supersede his wit, humor, and devout faith in God.
Thankfully, in the prelude to “Madiba,” Shaun taught us how to deal with this loss.
“I remember landing in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2013. Not long after I checked into my hotel room, we received word that the former President of South Africa, the honorable and majestic Nelson Mandela, had passed away.
Now, normally, when a dignitary of such magnitude passes away, the city becomes somber. Much like when the Queen passed away – I just so happened to be in London for that too. But this was no ordinary passing. It taught me something.
I want to live such a life that when death comes, people won’t mourn because I died – they’ll celebrate because I lived!”
Eventually, we will shake off this sense of mourning, but we must celebrate Harold Shaun Martin because he lived…every moment. His life, labor, love, and legacy were all in a day’s work.
I’m headed to Fuel City to get me some tacos and get back on my hustle. Play me something RC!
