|
 |
Pink Martini - Hey, Eugene! (Heinz)
Released: May 15, 2007
What the...well, let's just say that Pink Martini will probably be an
acquired taste for you.
Like caviar...or Martinis. Although I acquired that one pretty quickly.
And I acquired this one pretty quickly, too. By the second trip through
the 'pod, I was beginning to appreciate Pink Martini not for the retro,
tongue-in-cheek kitsch it so clearly is, at first blush. Because that
would be almost too easy. This is more layered than that.
Pink Martini is the brainchild of Harvard-trained pianist Thomas
Lauderdale, who talked a former classmate, China Forbes, into coming out
to Oregon to work with what Lauderdale calls his "little orchestra" of
twelve musicians.
Ms. Forbes fronts the group, although it's clearly an multi-cultural,
multi-lingual ensemble. Everything from Portuguese, with "Tempo Perdido,"
a 30s hit for Carmen Miranda; to Arabic, with "Bukra Wba'do," which I
won't even try to pronounce as well as Ms. Forbes does - to plain old
English for "Everywhere," a Forbes-Lauderdale original.
That one, by the way, makes it to my growing list of "New Classics." It
can stand with anything out of the American Songbook.
Along the way, there's faux Russian, some Japanese, and - well, it would
be easy to pigeonhole this bunch as leftovers from the lounge fad of the
90s. But there's a lot more to it than that. It's eclectic, it's world
music, and it's so unique, and so well done - you really deserve to have
one of their discs in your collection.
I happen to think this is the best of the three discs they've produced
so far. Ms. Forbes handles it all with the right sense of timing, great
range, and the right sense of delivery - which is to say she never gets
too far out in front of the camp.
Because the truth is, It's not just retro, tongue-in-cheek kitsch. It's
really, really good music, clearly assembled lovingly by very talented
musicians.
Very highly recommended.
  Three
and one-half microphones (out of four)
- Doug Boynton
(07/29/07) |
