| Mar |
| 17 |
| 5:00 pm |
17 Mar 2010
Mosaic Music Festival 2010
Esplanade, Singapore
7.30pm
(90mins, no intermission)
$40*, $60**, $80
(Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens at $25*, $40** respectively)
“[Pink Martini] delivers a knowing sophistication backed by skillful arrangements … Ms. Forbes is an unpretentious, pitch-perfect chanteuse who can be breathy and girlish or sultry … she tempers heartbreak with savoir-faire.” – New York Times
Travel through space and time with the vintage lounge music of Pink Martini where each song is a lush, little love story set in a faraway land in a distant day and age, recalling everything retro and romantic from the ripe, luscious feel of 1940s Hollywood movies, to the hazy, sunny warmth of old 70s Polaroid photographs, to the old-fashioned glamour of Latin dances.
From Rio samba parade to Japanese film noir to Russian tea lounge…
Wherever Pink Martini performs lives, the vast array of instruments – including the grand piano, guitar, double bass, violin, cello, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, harp, cymbals, surdo, cajon, timbales, bells, bongos, caixixi and glockenspiel among others – brought onstage by its musicians in suits usually causes a stir among audiences.
But what really makes jaws drop is the many different types of romantic music the ensemble plays and the many languages and “voices” that co-songwriter and lead vocalist China Forbes sings in. For the Portland, Oregon-based group’s repertoire is made up of both superbly crafted, original love songs and cleverly arranged old ballads from diverse cultures and genres, and sung in different languages besides English, such as Portuguese, Spanish, French, Croatian and even Japanese. And like a chameleon, Forbes shapes her voice, intonation and phrasing to suit each song and deliver each with poise and beguiling charm.
Describes The New York Times, “China Forbes, Pink Martini’s lead singer and chief songwriter, has a clear and precise instrument, the perfect voice to convey a cosmopolitan air. Her great asset is versatility… When she sang in French, she put a shudder in her vibrato, channeling Edith Piaf; when she sang in Japanese, she adopted a coquettish and whispery tone. Tackling Arabic on one song, she managed a series of quavering microtones without sounding like a parodist.”
A desire to present an alternative America, not whimsy, is what drives Pink Martini’s musical globetrotting. Says founder, pianist, co-songwriter and bandleader Thomas Lauderdale, “We’re very much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad, in Europe, in Turkey, in Lebanon and therefore have the incredible opportunity to represent a different kind of America through our repertoire and our concerts – that is, an America which is the most heterogeneously populated country in the world – comprised of people from every country, every language, every religion.”
“It’s like an urban musical travelogue”, says Lauderdale. “At one moment, you feel like you’re in the middle of a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro, and in the next moment, you are suddenly in a French music hall of the 1930s or in a palazzo in Napoli.”
But no matter where it transports you, Pink Martini’s music is always eclectic, intelligent and sweepingly romantic, covering and blending jazz, rumba, lounge, neoclassical, flamenco and tropicalia with deft songwriting, stellar musicianship and exhilarating flair.
From Portland political fundraisers to the world stage
Pink Martini was started in 1994 in Portland, Oregon, by classically-trained pianist, Harvard literature/history graduate, Latin music lover and old movie buff Thomas Lauderdale as a band playing at political fundraisers for progressive causes.
Then Lauderdale managed to persuade his old Harvard schoolmate, painting, literature and theatre graduate, ex-Broadway actress and emerging folk-rock singer-songwriter, China Forbes, to join his band as co-songwriter and lead singer. They began to write music and lyrics together for the band, and their first song Sympathique or Je ne veux pas travailler (I don’t want to work) became a huge hit in France.
Initially a band of four, Pink Martini swelled to its current size of 12 when Lauderdale began building up his mini orchestra, recruiting some of the finest young musicians from all walks of life. Explains Lauderdale, “all of us in the band have studied different languages and music from different parts of the world… because everyone in the band contributes in the writing and arranging of songs, the repertoire is wildly diverse.
Since then, Pink Martini has released hit albums on its own label Heinz Records. Debut album Sympathique became an international phenomenon upon its release in 1997 and was nominated for “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards. 2004’s Hang on Little Tomato climbed to #1 on Amazon.com’s bestsellers’ list. 2007’s Hey Eugene! debuted at #1 on Amazon.com’s bestsellers’ list. And Splendor in the Grass, recently released in October 2009, has already gotten rave reviews.
And since making its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998, the ensemble has performed with symphony orchestras and on concert stages throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Canada and USA. The group’s songs have also appeared in films like Mr and Mrs Smith and Hitch and TV shows such as The Sopranos, CSI New York and The West Wing.
Despite the typical understatement of Lauderdale’s remark that “My hope is that we’re creating music which can be turned up or down, and played on almost any occasion, from background music of a love affair to vacuuming around the house”, Pink Martini has become cult heroes for audiences with a penchant for the romantic and enigmatic.
In the group’s warm, lush ballads, the skies are blue, birds glide on the wings of wind, it is springtime in Syracuse and the horizon has no end. As Pink Martini sings, “I’m discontented with homes that are rented/ So I have invented my own/ Darling this place is a lover’s oasis/ Where life’s weary chase is unknown”.
