Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin For their 30th anniversary, Pink Martini brought out songs from around the world, proving once again ...
[+] that this "little orchestra" from Portland is nothing if not ambitious. Ruth Kennison Say what you will about Pink Martini but don’t tell me they’re not ambitious. Celebrating their 30th anniversary with dramatic sweep and theatricality last night at The Hollywood Bowl, the “little orchestra” founded in 1994 in Portland, Oregon, demonstrated why this globe-trotting, genre-bending band has made the entire world its home stage.
With triumphant flourishes at the grand piano and frenetic asides to the audience between songs, Thomas Lauderdale remains the hypercharged nucleus of the band, radiating enough energy to power the Bowl’s stage lights—and then some. Crossing classical, jazz, and old-fashioned pop, his goal, he told the audience, was to pack 30 languages, if not 30 entire songs, into a set that lasted roughly 90 minutes. Assembled on stage was a voluminous and eclectic pool of talents, including regular Pink Martini collaborators Ari Shapiro (yes, you know him as host of All Things Considered), Mexican singer Edna Vazquez, and “America’s Got Talent” finalist Jimmie Herrod.
Plus, a string orchestra, a small horn section, drums, congas, a previously unannounced surf band, and a visiting female cantor, Ida Rae Cahana, who greeted the Bowl with a rousing, “Shabbat shalom.” Pink Martini is an overachiever like that. Alongside Lauderdale’s former Harvard classmate China Forbes on lead vocals, and guest vocalist Storm Large on call for the rest, the extended band tore through Pink Martini classics in French (“Sympathique”), Spanish (“Donde Estas Yolanda?”), Italian (“Amando Mio”) and Portuguese (“Brazil”) before going graduate level with fresh interpretations, like Large’s epic rendition of “Amando Mio”—in Thai.
It all started in 1994 with "Sympathique," a French ditty by a group of quirky Americans that was convincingly French enough to get a nod as "Song of the Year" at the Victoires de la Musique Awards, aka the French Grammys. The track, featuring the refrain "Je ne veux pas travailler" ("I don't want to work"), remains a cultural touchstone in France and a go-to protest song for every striking group of workers from Paris to Marseilles. That hit was merely the start of Pink Martini’s run as the titans of polyglot pop.
With more than a dozen musicians and songs in over 25 languages, the band has performed with over 70 orchestras worldwide and still can’t be pinned down to any one musical style or genre. MORE FOR YOU Russian Troops Captured One Of Ukraine’s Dutch Armored Vehicles, Rode It Back Into Battle—And Promptly Got Killed Apple iPhone 16 Pro: New Design Echoed In Latest Leak The Sound Of Failure At Sonos Flags of many nations waved on stage as Pink Martini rolled through a global songbook. Ruth Kennison I’ve been a fan almost since the beginning.
In the late 90s, I remember seeing them perform at my favorite Palm Springs hotel, singing “Que Sera Sera” at the stroke of midnight to a group of around 50 of us. function loadConnatixScript(document) { if (!window.cnxel) { window.
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The showoff moment came toward the very end, when Lauderdale acknowledged that he hadn’t nearly reached the goal of 30 languages. And so, in a final speed round, he called out language after language as flag bearers arrived on stage, and Forbes, Large, Shapiro and the rest of the crew belted out songs in Japanese, Croatian, Indian and African dialects, Turkish and Armenian, Greek and Uzbek, Farsi and Finnish—like I said, these Pink Martini folks are definitely not slackers..
