It seems appropriate that a band such as Pink Martini, whose music is
like a movie screen showing an endless travelogue of the world's most
glamorous vacation spots, made its European debut at the Cannes Film
Festival back in 1998. Since then, they've toured around the world and
released two more albums, "Hang On Little Tomato" and "Hey Eugene!" to
add to their growing repertoire of songs started on their debut,
"Sympathique." Led by pianist and songwriter Thomas Lauderdale and
vocalist China Forbes, the group incorporates a diversity of languages
into their songs, which range in style from classical to jazz, from
world music to the infectious pop of the title track off their most
recent release. Hours before their performance at Corvallis' 19th annual da Vinci
Days Festival, Lauderdale and Forbes sat down with
podcaster Jake TenPas of the Corvallis Gazette-Times to discuss their music,
their creative process and their favorite places in the world to perform
their truly international music.
Pink Martini songs appear in such films as In the Cut, Nurse Betty, Josie and the Pussycats, Tortilla Soup and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and have been used on television shows such as Dead Like Me, The Sopranos and The West Wing.
