Little Orchestra

Of his 12-piece band Pink Martini, Thomas M. Lauderdale likes to
say, “If the United Nations had a band in 1962, we would be that
band.”

Since 1994, the Portland, Ore.-based Pink Martini has traded in the
sort of lush, beautiful jazz and pop that typified movie musicals and
pop standards of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, but with a contemporary edge
and a robust embrace of global music.

Growing from four to the current dozen players, Pink Martini is now
referred to as a “little orchestra,” with strings, horns, harp and
pan-cultural percussion. Lauderdale—the founder, pianist and
artistic director—met and became fast friends with China Forbes
while they were students at Harvard, and the classically trained
vocalist joined the group as its sultry lead singer.

The music of Pink Martini can be likened to an “urban music
travelogue,” Lauderdale has said. Along with English-language songs and
pop interpretations of classical material, the group’s music draws from
the cultures and languages of countries all over Europe, Asia, South
America and the Middle East.

Forbes ably handles the foreign lyrics, too. “There have been only a
handful of American pop singers who have sung in different languages,
and China is in that tradition,” Lauderdale said last week while the
band was in Los Angeles.

The official Pink Martini press material points out that the band
was formed to play political fundraisers for progressive causes. But
Lauderdale was more specific.

“The band actually was formed to play one political fundraiser in
particular: There was a movement back then in Oregon to illegalize
homosexuality; it was called Proposition 13, and I was working hard to
oppose that. I had the idea to bring the Del Rubio Triplets to Oregon
to play a ‘No on 13’ event.”

Wearing miniskirts, bouffant hairdos and go-go boots, the Del Rubio
Triplets were real triplets (born in 1921) who played peppy covers of
modern-rock songs in the 1980s and ’90s. Two of them have since passed
away.

“So Pink Martini was really formed to be the backing band for the
Del Rubio Triplets,” Lauderdale said, proudly, adding that Proposition
13 was narrowly defeated.

Before the formation of Pink Martini, Lauderdale was considering a
career in politics, but the band gave him a new means of pursuing a
similar goal.

“After that campaign, we found ourselves playing benefits for
affordable housing, public broadcasting, libraries, all sorts of
causes,” he said.

Although Lauderdale doesn’t mind Pink Martini being called an
activist band, direct political references stay out of the music, he
said.

“We don’t sing songs about the political causes we support or
anything like that. The spirit of the band is more ambassadorial.
Especially during the Bush years, I think, being an American band
singing songs in Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Italian, German and other
languages was very important. I think Pink Martini represents a
broader, more adventurous view of America.”

Also important to Pink Martini are values that can be found in the
music and culture of earlier eras in American society, Lauderdale
said.

“The thing is, I think in America until 1964, there was a certain
kind of American commitment to beauty and beautiful things. I think
beauty was a goal of art and music and the culture, even advertising. I
have old bound issues of Life and Look and even
Playboy, and there is so much space and richness in the
ads.”

So what does Lauderdale think happened to pop culture?

“This is only my theory, but after the death of John F. Kennedy, it
all turned dark and plastic and disposable. The goal of beauty began to
slowly die. That was paired with the combination of changing politics
in our country, and Vietnam and probably drugs, as well as an increase
in selfishness and the idea of community.”

The lyrics of many Pink Martini songs feature tangible, deep-felt
emotions in the same way pop standards and movie music did in the first
half of the 20th century. This is in many ways a response to the irony
and sarcasm so popular now.

“I totally believe in romance and that heightened sense of love that
China sings about. And people come up to me, certain friends who are
otherwise really smart, and they tell me, ‘I just love how your music
is so ironic.’ There is nothing ironic about it! I don’t know what to
tell them,” he laughed.

Pink Martini has seen the release of three albums, the most recent
being 2007’s Hey Eugene!

This year, a live DVD (Discover the World: Live in Concert)
has been made available for buyers, released by the band’s independent
label, Heinz Records, named for Lauderdale’s late dog. A new Pink
Martini disc, Splendor in the Grass, is scheduled to hit stores
Oct. 27.

Produced by Lauderdale, Forbes and longtime collaborator Alex
Marashian, Splendor in the Grass features way-cool guest stars
such as the 90-year-old ranchera singer Chavela Vargas (a onetime lover
of Frida Kahlo); actor-singer Emilio Delgado (aka Luis on Sesame
Street); National Public Radio correspondent Ari Shapiro (making
his singing debut); and guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor of the Dandy
Warhols.

Pink Martini has played in Tucson before, and Lauderdale remembers
well the last time—a gig at the Rialto Theatre, the venue to
which the band will return.

“There was this little coffeehouse down the street, and I drank a
dangerous amount of caffeine there, and the whole day turned out to be
delightfully surreal. I had such a good time that day, and I think the
audience did, too, but I am not so sure the rest of the band did,
because I was probably a little manic during the show.”

This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2009.