Pianist Shaun Martin is from the Snarky Puppy camp. He's a talented player, constantly busy, constantly pleasing crowds. He's back Chaka Khan and Erykah Badu, he's been the music director for Kirk Franklin for many years. There's a Southern charm to the Texan, playing with an earthiness that only comes from a background of playing in black churches that seems to permeate every other musical creation, it's built into the training of getting folks to pass the offering plate. This, too, comes with a sense of perfectionism, of making sure things are just right. This isn't to say he is precious with the music, but it is done just so. Martin's 2015 album, Seven Summers, has all this and more. It's the kind of pleasantness that one would expect from the Dallas musician.

- Anthony Dean-Harris