Pink Martini
Sympathique

THE REVIEW

Listening to this album is like diving into a world. Figurative, retro, vintage, call it what you want. Undoubtedly, this first album by Pink Martini is certainly one of the best representations of the universality of music and the passions associated with it.

The basis of these eleven compositions outlines a stylistic refinement but also a formal respect for the highest popular expressions. Initially a small band from Oregon founded by pianist Thomas Lauderdale, an activist who strives to use their performances to raise awareness among concertgoers for charitable causes. Then in 1997, the commitment became a profession with this album that, thanks to the title track, sold about 700,000 copies worldwide. Evocative, as we've said, starting with the choice of covers. The incisive attack of singer China Forbes opens "Amado mio" and it seems as if the ghost of Rita Hayworth bursts forth in all her sensuality, or even Doris Day in a song that could be defined as eternal like "Que será será". But it’s also a fresco of enchanting places and peoples; "Andalucia", right from the title, is a tribute to a multicultural Spanish community characterized by a strong identity. But they move from the oriental echoes of "Songs of the Black Lizard" to the Latin fresco of "Brazil", or the Chopin quotation used as the introduction of "Le Soledad", all mixed in a skillful balance. It's difficult to place them in a genre, too easy to label them as lounge.

Pink Martini is an ensemble of musicians like the percussionist Richard Rothfus who lives his relationship with music freely, ranging from Schubert to Santana to the Slayer. But how can we not remember the vocalist Pepe Raphael, the trombone of Robert Taylor, the trumpet of Gavin Bondy, the bass of Phil Baker (bassist for nine years on tour with Diana Ross and an admirer of the Italian D'Addario strings), the percussion, drums and congas of Brian Lavern Davis, currently a full professor at Portland State University and of Derek Rieth in addition to those of Timothy Nishimoto, owner in Long Beach of «Vino Paradiso Wine Bar and Bistro» and the drums of the Peruvian Martin Zarzar. Then there are also the violin of Nicholas Crosa, the guitar of Dan Fahenle.

Pink Martini today performs all over the world, in addition to "Sympathique", they have two other albums, "Hangin on a little tomato" from 2004, "Hey Eugene" from 2007 and the recent "Splendor in the Grass", all works of considerable depth but "Sympathique" proves to be the most homogeneous in addressing different styles in a homogeneous blend of freshness and lightness without being didactic or rhetorical.