Pink Martini

Pink Martini

Pink Martini is a group from Portland, United States, active since 1994. It is described as a “little orchestra” and is led by pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale. The group’s line-up includes Paloma Griffin, Martin Zarzar, Phil Baker, Anthony Jones, Kyle Mustain, Gavin Bandy, Pansy Chang, Brian Davis, Dan Faehnle, China Forbes, Thomas M. Lauderdale, Maureen Love, Timothy Nishimoto, Derek Rieth, Doug Smith, Robert Taylor and John Wager. It releases music on Heinz Records.

Style and repertoire

The group works across cocktail nation, jazz pop and lounge, and also draws on jazz, Latin, chillout and easy listening. Its sound combines elements of classical music, jazz and older popular song forms. Pink Martini performs multilingual material, with China Forbes singing in 15 languages despite speaking English as her first language.

Formation and early collaboration

Lauderdale meets Forbes at Harvard, where he studies history and literature and she studies English literature and painting. They sing together in their dormitory, including arias by Puccini and Verdi and occasional Barbra Streisand covers. After graduating, Lauderdale asks Forbes, then living in New York City and writing songs and playing guitar in a folk-rock project, to join Pink Martini. They begin writing songs for the band together.

Recordings and releases

The band’s debut album, Sympathique, is released independently in 1997 and becomes an international success. Its first song, “Sympathique”, with the refrain “Je ne veux pas travailler”, becomes a hit in France and is nominated for Song of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Awards. The album later contributes to further Victoires de la Musique nominations for Song of the Year and Best New Artist in 2000. Pink Martini’s second album, Hang on Little Tomato, appears in 2004, followed by Hey Eugene! in 2007 and Splendor in the Grass in 2009. Sympathique, Hang on Little Tomato and Hey Eugene! all go gold in France, Canada, Greece and Turkey. The group’s recordings sell more than two million copies worldwide.

Performances and collaborations

Pink Martini makes its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under Norman Leyden. It goes on to perform with more than 30 orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, National Symphony at the Kennedy Center and BBC Concert Orchestra in London. Other appearances include the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, sold-out New Year’s Eve concerts there in 2003, 2004 and 2008, two sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, the opening party for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Governor’s Ball at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008 and the opening of the 2008 Sydney Festival.

The group also works with Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing, Henri Salvador, Jane Powell, Chavela Vargas, Georges Moustaki, Michael Feinstein, DJ Dimitri from Paris, Norman Leyden, Hiroshi Wada, DJ Johnny Dynell and several drag queens from New York City. It appears on Later with Jools Holland and on Late Show with David Letterman, performing “Hey Eugene”.

Other appearances

Pink Martini’s music appears in films including In the Cut, Nurse Betty, Josie and the Pussycats, Tortilla Soup, Shanghai Kiss, Mary and Max and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and on television series such as Dead Like Me, The Sopranos and The West Wing. “Una notte a Napoli” features in the film Mine Vaganti, and “No Hay Problema” is used in Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 and in an early build of Windows Longhorn, later Windows Vista.

The group records three concerts with the Oregon Symphony under Carlos Kalmar for a symphonic album project. A live DVD from a Portland concert is later retitled Discover the World: Live in Concert and includes the full performance, vignettes and a short documentary about the band’s history.