THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
REVIEWS
Royal Albert Hall, London and on tour (see below) To May 8 Pink Martini’s bandleader Thomas Lauderdale once said “if the United Nations had a house band in 1962, hopefully we’d be that band”. Their genius is that they defy categorisation — jazz, latin, classical, classic pop — they cover the waterfront. ‘Dance band’ is too narrow a description, ‘orchestra’ too grand, and while some might consign them to the bargain bin of Easy Listening, they don’t fit there either, for these consummate musicians do not wallow in nostalgia. Instead, they distil the essence of an often very familiar old tune, take it out, dust it off, shine its shoes and make you realize just what a gem it was in the first place. These aren’t covers, this is re-incarnation. Last time they played the Albert Hall, China Forbes, their divine lead singer, was recovering from surgery on her vocal chords and this time her debut was made sweeter by also being on her birthday. With a crystalline voice and the instinctive musicality of an Ella Fitzgerald, she is a complete joy to listen to, and yet, despite her brilliance as a song stylist, she doesn’t outshine the band. They are a holistic unit. Created by the quirky, Puck-ish, Thomas Lauderdale, in Portland, Oregon in 1994, they continue to push musical boundaries while at the same time remaining resolutely true to their USP. As he put it “I don’t know anything after 1964 — that’s my cut-off point”. Their secret is that they are great live and they know how to get a crowd going. They even had them up on stage dancing, much to the horror of the security staff. Here they justly delivered hit after hit — Amado Mio, Una notte a Napoli, Hey Eugene, and Hang On Little Tomato and of course Sympathique that anthem of the indolent, whose lyrics “Je ne veux pas travailler” they unwittingly appropriated from a poem by Apollinaire. That led to a lawsuit from the French publishers Gallimard. They’ve now kissed and made up. They are eternal magpies. Having all studied languages and different styles of music from around the world, their repertoire is gloriously eclectic and they don’t shirk from performing the songs in their original languages be they Japanese, Turkish or Croatian. This polyglot aspect makes them a perfect band for the metropolis, where you can always find a lonely diasporum. Here, they found four sweet Turkish people to come up on stage to join in Uska Dara (yes, that ole Eartha Kitt warhorse). In the interests of balance they then summoned a merry band of Greeks to help them out on Never on a Sunday. The latter stumbled over the lyrics though, like footballers on the pitch gormlessly mouthing some dreary national anthem. The spirit of universal solidarity won out in the end and this trick totally charmed the crowd. So, what was new? Apart from Uska Dara, their next album will include their version of Quizás, Quizás, Quizás (better known to Doris Day fans as Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps) and a great swing number Ich Liebe Dich, which Mamie Van Doren sang in a 1964 movie. As well as songs and pop culture ephemera they collect living legends to record with. The roster includes Jimmy Scott, Chavela Vargas and, coming up, Phyllis Diller; before she died last year they put down a new version of Charlie Chaplin’s Smile. The icing on the cake of their concerts in London and Brighton was a guest star turn by the suave and charismatic Rufus Wainwright. He performed Kitty Come Home, a tender and powerful balled composed by his aunt Anna McGarrigle about his late and much lamented mother, Kate McGarrigle. Rufus and Pink Martini are a perfect fit, as they proved later when he sang the Judy part and China sang the Barbra part on a soaring rendition of that famous TV duet — Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy. The party finished with a conga line to Brazil. Well, how else could it? They’re in Basingstoke (May 3), Dublin (May 4), Derry (May 5), Edinburgh (May 7) and Liverpool (May 8). The single with Rufus and The Von Trapps (I’m not making that up, they’ve collaborated with the great grandchildren of Maria) is out now and the new album Get Happy is out in September. |
