Album Reviews

If you're not acquainted, Pink Martini is either a large band or a "small orchestra" of 12 and occasionally more, created back in 1997 by Portland pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale and the group's lead singer China Forbes. The two began collaborating for fun while at Harvard.

The group has issued four LPs, including this one, the most recent, from 2009. A new one is due this year. They've collaborated with larger orchestras around the world including The Boston Pops and the L.A. Philharmonic. They've sold millions of records and won many awards along the way.

The music is an entertaining amalgam of last decade's "Space Age Bachelor Pad" fad, Nino Rota, '60's pop (Bacharach and David style), Broadway, and the general musical sensibility of Kip Hanrahan among other eclectic musical tastemakers. It's simultaneously serious and retro-kitsch fun.

On this album they are augmented by the Harvey Rosencrantz Orchestra. There are special appearances by Chavela Vargas, Emilio Delgado, Ari Shapiro, and Courtney Taylor-Taylor. Taylor-Taylor is guitarist for The Dandy Warhols. Shapiro is actually an NPR correspondent making his singing debut.

Speaking of NPR/PBS: I would think this album and a iive concert Blu-ray or DVD would be the ideal PBS fund-raiser—and I don't mean that as a slam! I love this stuff!

Lauderdale clearly has a fondness for foreign languages so along with English, there are songs in Neopolitan, French, Italian and Spanish  with translations in the gatefold packaging. The high concept is an invitation to seek out the world and revel in its small pleasures.

In Lauderdale's world that includes covering "Sing," a song written for "Sesame Street" in the 1970s and covered by The Carpenters. Here it's sung as duet with Forbes and Emilio Delgado a/ka "Luis" on "Sesame Street." Also onboard is a high school chorus and members of the staff of Portland's Mayor Sam Adams. There's also a cover of Louis "Moondog" Hardin's "New Amsterdam."

Pink Martini's Splendor in the Grass is, appropriately, on the Heinz Records label. Within the grooves of these two exquisitely recorded and RTI pressed LPs can be found at least 57 varieties of music, though the label's name derives from Lauderdale's dog.

The arrangements feature persuasive percussion, Latin beats, backdrops lifted from Tchaikovsky and Schubert and motifs you've heard in '60s soundtracks. In fact, the sitar heard on one track is the very one Peter Sellers played in the hilarious Blake Edwards' comedy "The Party" (birdy num-num). The music is campy, retro, poppy, elegant and soundtrack-friendly, which is why the group's output has found its way into many popular movies. The arranging and playing are "top shelf" throughout.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Highly recommended with a glass of wine or some cognac, or if you're so inclined, some high quality reefer.