pink martini

Tonight I saw Pink Martini perform at the Eccles Center for Performing Arts in Park City. They have been described as "somewhere between a 1930s Cuban dance orchestra, a classical chamber music ensemble, a Brasilian marching street band and Japanese film noir."

Heralding from Portland, Oregon, Pink Martini has toured worldwide with great success. The ensemble made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998 and in the years following toured throughout Europe. When asked about their music, founder Thomas Lauderdale commented, "We're kind of like musical archaeologists, bringing melodies and rhythms from different parts of the world together to create something which is modern. One of our goals is to make music which has broad appeal to people, no matter who they are or where they come from."

Pink Martini put on a lively and entertaining show tonight. The 12-piece group consists of a primary vocalist, backing vocalist, piano, trumpet, trombone, cello, upright bass, guitar, vibraphone, congas, bongos, drums and other percussion instruments. They performed songs in several languages including French, Italian, Japanese and English.

One of the highlights of tonight's performance was a reworking of the Japanese song "Kikuchiyo to Mohshimasu", originally recorded and released by Hiroshi Wada over 40 years ago. Sung in Japanese by China Forbes, the song "Kikuchiyo to Mohshimasu" features a haunting, yet beautiful melody.

During some part of the performance I'm afraid I fell asleep. Not from a lack of interest but rather because I felt so tired. I hadn't slept much the night before and it had been a long day. I'm unsure how long I feel asleep for but it was probably just a few minutes.

I'm interested to hear something from Pink Martini's albums. While it isn't music I'd typically listen to, it is good to hear something fresh. I expect I'll have to track one of their albums down and have a listen.