Thomas Lauderdale, founder, pianist, composer and arranger for genre-defiant big band Pink Martini, was preparing for the second of a two-night run in Oklahoma City on the afternoon of March 24. And while he may have been focusing on that evening’s concert, he had more immediate concerns when he answered his cell phone.
“I’m walking over to get my dry cleaning,” he said. “I almost forgot about it, and would’ve been sunk if I had, because they’re closed on Sundays. It’s our second night playing with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic here, and we have to be in Dallas for another show tomorrow.”
The Pink Martini leader doesn’t forget important details often. He’s expanded the Portland, Ore.-based ensemble from a quartet in 1994 to an act that now regularly appears with 10-13 members on stage (considerably more when paired with orchestras), and averages 140 concerts per year worldwide.
Many of those stops are for political functions, which point back toward Lauderdale’s previous life. The Indiana-raised pianist moved to Portland with his family in 1982, started classical training with Sylvia Killman that continues 30 years later, and became a student body president in high school. He then graduated with honors from Harvard with a degree in history and literature in 1992 before serving under Portland Mayor Bud Clark and Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt. Lauderdale was even thinking of running for mayor himself until music intervened.
“I was working with Portland City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury to draft and pass the city’s civil rights ordinance,” he says. “I was going to a lot of political fundraisers, and just hated the music that was being played, so I started this band to change that.”
Lauderdale may no longer work in politics, but let’s just say he still knows how to work each side of every aisle. Pink Martini draws from classical music, jazz and pop; 1940s-1950s Hollywood musicals, Brazilian samba and Italian folk, and Argentine tango, French and Asian styles.
“We wanted to appeal to conservatives as well as liberal people,” he says, “and people of all ages. I call it global, international, symphonic old-fashioned pop music, but it’s a broad swath. Oklahoma voted largely for Rick Santorum in the recent Republican primary, so I assume that there were some of his conservative supporters among the crowd that gave us a standing ovation last night.”
How to achieve such broad appeal involved selecting members for the growing band that had a like-minded dexterity. Lauderdale reached out to a fellow student he’d met at Harvard, vocalist China Forbes, in 1995. They’d bonded while singing arias by Puccini and Verdi, and Barbra Streisand tunes, plus she spoke 15 different languages. Forbes abandoned a promising career as a New York City folk-rock artist and moved to Portland to become Lauderdale’s creative foil.
Their first collaboration, the title track to Pink Martini’s 1997 debut Sympathique, featured a chorus of “Je ne veux pas travailler” (“I don’t want to work”), and became an overnight sensation in France.
“China has great ears,” Lauderdale says, “and she’s up to about 20 languages now, which really opens up amazing possibilities for this band.”
As do its well-versed musicians. Illinois-born trombonist Robert Taylor is part of the Oregon Symphony; Portland native Gavin Bondy plays trumpet in the jazz band Shanghai Woolies. Drummer/percussionist Brian Lavern Davis was a member of the Portland funk-rock act the Dan Reed Network, which opened for the Rolling Stones on their Steel Wheels world tour in 1990.
Percussionists Derek Rieth and Timothy Nishimoto both spend ample time in Brazil, and are fluent in the country’s samba and bossa nova styles, and Peruvian percussionist Martin Zarzar has contributed compositions to the Pink Martini catalog.
Bassist Phil Baker has worked with Diana Ross, Gino Vannelli and Tom Scott; violinist Nicholas Crosa with major symphonies in the United States, Canada and Argentina, and cellist Pansy Chang is an associate professor at Miami University of Ohio.
Guitarist Dan Faehnle has toured and recorded with jazz luminaries Diana Krall, Joey DeFrancesco and Dr. Lonnie Smith; harpist Maureen Love with numerous symphonies. She also has a brother, Mike Love, and a cousin, Brian Wilson, who achieved pop stardom with the Beach Boys.
“I don’t know if we could’ve lasted 18 years if we’d stayed a small band,” Lauderdale says. “With a band this large, if you’re not getting along with someone, you can always talk to someone else. Plus, I think it’s a bonus to have so many collective global influences.”
Pink Martini’s latest release, 1969, is a collection of songs that were initially released during that year, from Puff, the Magic Dragon and Jorge Ben’s Mas Que Nada to Japanese hits re-created by that country’s celebrated pop singer Saori Yuki with the ensemble. She also sang a verse of White Christmas in Japanese on Pink Martini’s non-denominational 2010 holiday CD, Joy to the World.
Lauderdale’s sparse arrangements keep Pink Martini’s abundant instrumentation from ever sounding cluttered, whether on recordings or on stage.
“Some tunes will just be myself and China,” he says, “and others will be full band and full-throttle. I think it’s important to keep the sound shifting, and that’s partly achieved by knowing when to pull back and when not to. Between our different instruments, languages and styles, we try to make things more interesting from a sonic point of view. We’re like a little orchestra, and a bit old-fashioned. Whether it’s older songs or things we’ve written, the goal is always beautiful melodies and lyrics.”
All eight Pink Martini releases are on Heinz Records, the label Lauderdale named for his dog. The pianist may have a reputation for outside-the-box musical ideas, but it takes a strong business plan to make the outdated idea of a big band succeed, especially in today’s economy.
“We made it a point to be independent and have our own label,” he says, “and everybody in the band shares the profits from the albums. It’s like our little Occupy cooperative.”
With gold records in countries like Canada, France, Greece and Turkey, Lauderdale may have made Pink Martini the unofficial house band for the United Nations. He got a strong vote in 2007 when Macedonian diplomat Srgjan Kerim, then the new president of the U.N.’s General Assembly and a recent witness to a Pink Martini concert in Vanvouver, ordered 30 copies of the band’s second CD (2004’s Hang On, Little Tomato) to distribute during his first official meeting.
“That’s one of my favorite memories,” the political aide-turned-pianist said wistfully. “Music can be a great ambassador, and bridge cultures and generations as well as audiences.”
Pink Martini’s appearance at the Kravis Center this week will be its first ever in Palm Beach County, and a rarity in Florida in general.
“We’ve appeared in Jacksonville a couple times,” Lauderdale says, “and once in Miami, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Clearwater, but never West Palm Beach before. We’ll probably play material from each of our albums there.”
Asked about the name Pink Martini, Lauderdale has an explanation that’s far less complicated than its multi-lingual, multi-genre, multi-national, non-party-affiliated approach.
“It was 1994, during the summer when drinking Cosmopolitans became really popular,” he says. “Sorry, but there’s no real story there.”
See Pink Martini at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 7 in Dreyfoos Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach ($20-$100, 561-832-7469 or 800-572-8571).