I cannot put my finger on it, but here are two things that I do know for sure: Pink Martini plays a wonderful selection of songs that few people born after 1980 have ever heard.And if Sunday night's performance in the Hopkins Center's Spaulding Auditorium was any indication, they play these songs well and with sensibilities almost too refined for their repertoire.
Pink Martini is a band, sort of. It is more of an orchestra and, truthfully, also a medium through which lost gems of international lounge and jazz can be transmitted. The 14-piece group from Portland, Ore., made Hanover the last stop on its brief tour of the Northeast United States and Canada and played to an enthusiastic but restrained crowd of mostly older patrons in Spaulding.
The temperament of the audience, enthusiastic but subdued, is remarkably similar to the temperament of the band. Thomas Lauderdale, the pianist and artistic director of the band, clearly has a vision of what the group should be about. Pink Martini is all about style.
Sure, they are playing lounge music, even if it is lounge music with full orchestrations and excellent musicians, but it is also lounge music that never goes over the top. Pink Martini creates its own style -- it takes ownership of several aesthetic ideals while maintaining the consistent framework of the music that they play.
China Forbes, the lead vocalist, is talented and brings a certain intelligence to her performance. Her handling of numerous pieces in the group's repertoire was delicate, precise and never schmaltzy. She also very admirably navigates her way through a wide variety of languages; over the course of the evening, she sang songs in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Arabic.
The performances by the instrumentalists were impressive as well. Each player was featured on at least one song, and each one displayed talent and professionalism that contributed immensely to the group's overall sound.
The variety of the Pink Martini's program was impressive as well. With a mixture of original compositions and borrowed songs from previous eras, the group tackled a broad range of musical niches, including love songs, Egyptian cinematic sing-alongs, Japanese odes to the "Filipino national anthem" and classical pieces highlighting the talented instrumentalists, nary missing a beat as it went.
It makes the listener wonder: Where do they find these songs? Indeed, the procession of gems lost from the modern lounge library made this writer crave for the days when jazz and pop were one and the same. The songs were beautiful, and they were unknown. The mystery that came with them was intriguing. I wanted to run up on stage, hug the band and ask them how they found all these songs that I now will long to hear but for some reason had never chanced upon before?
The original compositions, written mainly by Lauderdale, Forbes and drummer Martin Zarzar, were excellent in their own right. They were informed by the older pieces that the band had chosen to play but still fresh and unique in their composition and thematic content. One was about a man that Ms. Forbes met at a party but never heard from again; another was about a Russian-Italian transplant who was torn between his two home countries. Clever and witty, these songs strengthened the band's compositional integrity.
The student body was largely absent from the audience on Sunday, but one student was touched by the performance.
"I think it was fate," said Victoria Toumanoff '09. "I think I heard the song I want to play at my wedding."
When asked why, she said, "It was the sparkle. I don't think I've heard Japanese lounge before."
"It really spoke to the younger crowd," said Loren Sands-Ramshaw '10.
Too true -- but only to the younger crowd that showed up. I was disappointed to see so many of us had failed to attend. This is music that needs to be heard by everyone, make no mistake. Open your minds, and you may find the song you want to play at your wedding as well.
