Pink Martini marks 30 years with toasts, a tour and an upcoming release

Thirty years ago, in 1994, the entertainment world witnessed many milestones. With performances by Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Metallica, Joe Cocker, Melissa Etheridge and Crosby, Stills & Nash (among others), Woodstock 1994 marked the 25th anniversary of the original rock festival. The TV series “Friends” debuted. Whitney Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You” won 1994 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and best female pop vocal performance. And the eclectic, electric orchestra Pink Martini burst out of Portland, Oregon. 

Formed by pianist Thomas Lauderdale, Pink Martini is celebrating its 30th anniversary from July 2024 to July 2025. The band is currently at work on a new studio album, due this year. The group has built an international fan base with its rollicking cross-genre mix of classical, cabaret, jazz and easy-listening pop. Before founding the band, Lauderdale had political ambitions and was dismayed by the inappropriately loud and potentially off-putting nature of the music he heard at fundraisers and public events around his hometown.

He decided to focus on an ensemble that could provide music for events that supported causes near and dear to his heart, including affordable housing, civil rights, education, public libraries and parks. He enlisted his former Harvard classmate China Forbes, a powerhouse vocalist and songwriter, to join him in the endeavor, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Ahead of the band’s SCP Featured Concert on Feb. 28, here are some facts to know about Pink Martini:

What’s in a name? Thomas Lauderdale always loved the film "Breakfast at Tiffany’s" (1961), directed by Blake Edwards, because he admired the music of Henry Mancini (who wrote the movie’s score) and “The Pink Panther” (also scored by Mancini and directed by Blake Edwards) and all of that mid-century cocktail aesthetic. Lauderdale was taken with that idea and thought the words “pink” and “martini” sounded good together. And a phenomenon was born.

More than 3 million sold: From the start, Pink Martini was a sensation. The first song that Lauderdale and Forbes wrote together, “Sympathique” (“Je ne veus pas travailler”), was released as a single and became a sensation in France, nominated for Song of the Year at the 2000 Victoires de la Musique awards — the French equivalent of the Grammys. Since the first full-length album, “Sympathique” (1997), the band has released 11 wildly diverse and eclectic albums on its own Heinz Records (named for Lauderdale’s mixed breed dog). The releases have consistently charted, with “Hey Eugene” (2007), “Splendor in the Grass” (2009) and “Joy to the World” (2010), all breaking the Top 10 in various countries around the world.

Have stage or studio, they’ll travel: Masters of collaboration, Pink Martini members display a wide diversity of musical influences and are virtuosic enough to tackle any genre with total command. That means the sky’s the limit in terms of potential collaborators, and Pink Martini has embraced that potential perhaps more than any other working band. A partial list of collaborators consists of comic Phyllis Diller, jazz vocalists Michael Feinstein and Jimmy Scott, Vegas crooner Wayne Newton, trumpeter Doc Severinsen, Hollywood cult figure Mamie Van Doren, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, vocal ensemble the Von Trapps, composer-pianist Michel Legrand, Aussie “gigastar” Dame Edna Everage, Irish folk-pop group the Chieftains, Japanese singer Saori Yuki, the original cast of “Sesame Street,” Latin-music legend Chavela Vargas and Broadway icon Carol Channing.

A CSO connection: Also on the group’s list of collaborators is CSO cellist Brant Taylor, who toured with the band from 2002 to 2007. “Whatever adventure Pink Martini might get into musically,“ says Taylor, ”it’s going to be enjoyable, enriching and satisfying.”

Set list? What set list? They like to vamp and spin the wheel. “I never really see the set list until the day of the show,” says China Forbes. "Sometimes, like, right as I’m going on the stage."

What’s next? The band is working on a new studio release. A pair of peak-pandemic singles “herald the next album,” Forbes says. She and Lauderdale co-wrote the cheery tunes, both from 2020 — “The Lemonade Song”  and "Let’s Be Friends" — along with songwriter Jim Bianco.