By Paul Freeman [November 2016 Interview]

In today’s scary political climate, it’s no wonder you’d want to reach for a drink. Pink Martini serves up an intoxicating musical cocktail that mixes pop, jazz and cabaret with wide world influences.

The Portland band has always had a political aspect. In fact, it was started as a means of raising funds for such progressive causes as civil rights, affordable housing and public broadcasting. Classically trained pianist/bandleader Thomas M. Lauderdale assembled this mini-orchestra in 1994. Vocalist China Forbes, his Harvard classmate, joined the following year.

Pink Martini’s latest album, “Je Dis Oui!,” is a many splendored thing. The title is French for “I say yes!,” a reflection of the group’s positivity. Lauderdale and the group’s singers, Forbes and Storm Large, are joined by guest vocalists Rufus Wainwright, NPR’s Ari Shapiro, fashion guru Ikram Goldman and civil rights activist Kathleen Saadat.

Lyrics are sung in eight different languages over the course of the record. There are covers of songs made famous by Arabic singer Fairuz, Portuguese fado idol Amalia Rodrigues and African legend Miriam Makeba, as well as engaging Lauderdale originals.

We’re delighted that, when we asked Thomas Lauderdale to take time for a chat with Pop Culture Classics, he said yes!

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
“Je Dis Oui!” began with the songs you were putting together for the Isabel Huppert film. How did it grow from there?

THOMAS LAUDERDALE:
It all just unfolded. All of the albums are almost like a diary, a reflection of the people that I’m spending time with or the countries that we’re visiting. So that means that they’re somewhat in flux, shifting and changing. There were about 20 songs we were working on when we first went in the studio. For example, the song, “Al Bint Al Shalbiya” was a song that Ikram Goldman, who’s from Chicago, introduced to me, years ago. We became friends through our mutual friend, Kim Hastreiter, who runs “Paper” magazine in New York. And I flew Ikram from Chicago to Portland to be part of the backup chorus and also to counsel the band through the pronunciations of Arabic. And in the end, it became clear that really Ikram herself, who’s in the world of fashion, should actually record the vocals herself. So it kind of just unfolded miraculously. And so the whole thing sort of shifted.

“The Butterfly Song,” for example, the second song on the album, that came out of meeting my friend Alex Marashian, who lives in Berlin, who I had gone to college with, who produced the fourth album with me. I flew him for a day, halfway through the recording process, and we spent a day out at Rooster Rock, on the nude beach, building a fort. And out of that day came a remembrance of this song that we had written several years ago that we had kind of dropped. But we resurrected it and it became “The Butterfly Song.” Things were sort of constantly shifting.

There were five pieces that we didn’t finish. One piece is with Yma Sumac, who lived in Los Angeles. I met her in Los Angeles in 2005, shortly before she died. And she had made a demo several years earlier. And we decided that we would actually try to record this song with her. So we had a day at Capitol Records, but she never showed up, because she was pretty far through dementia. But during the course of this album, I suddenly remembered the demo. So we extricated her voice from the cassette tape and started building a new song around it. But we ran out of time. So that’ll be on the next record.

So what happens is - life unfolds. And so do the albums that we make. It shifts. Like life with the band never really had a master plan. I never intended to be a bandleader. I thought I was going to become mayor of Portland. And one thing led to another, led to another, and suddenly we’re here. This is our ninth album. And this is 22 years later. And I still haven’t run for office.

PCC:
Don’t you think you’ve accomplished a lot more, in terms of positive impact, through music, than you ever could have in politics?

LAUDERDALE:
Well, I don’t know. Maybe. Yeah. I love the city where I live, Portland. And what I like about it, it’s a city where it’s really possible to do something. It’s not impenetrable. And having grown up working in the mayor’s office, working for city commissioners, working on the civil rights ordinance for the city of Portland back in ’91, before I graduated from college, it still remains a very accessible city where one can actually do something and be experimental. That’s changing a bit. There are a lot of people moving from California to Portland right now.

Although I love Los Angeles. I think Los Angeles is great… as long as you don’t want anything.

PCC:
The multicultural nature of the new album, does that take on added significance in the unnerving new national political landscape?

LAUDERDALE:
Yeah, I think it does, actually. I’m really just beginning to process it all, really. A year ago, I said, ‘Donald Trump is going to win.’ And then I also said, ‘But I think he will be a better President any of us ever imagined.’ And I said that even six months ago. And then a couple of weeks before the election, I was with Ari Shapiro, he was traveling with us in the U.K. And he assured me that Trump was not going win. So I began to think, ‘Oh, if Ari Shapiro thinks that, it must be true.’ So I went the few weeks before the election thinking that I had been wrong and that Trump was going to lose. And then at the end, thinking, ‘Well, hopefully, he’ll now mellow out and be better and not be as horrible as all of the things that he has expressed and espoused.’ But it turns out to be the case, it seems like he’s actually going to do what he said he was going to do, all of the things that I find horribly unjust.

It’s a cultural divide. And the Left hasn’t really figured out how to reach the Right. And there’s so little dialogue going on in the country, in the culture. My ex-boyfriend had a really great idea several years ago. And that was to have a television show where there’s an issue and you would have two representatives from either side of the issue and what they had to do within the hour was to come to some kind of agreement that they could both live with. And I think that’s such a great idea. But that’s nowhere to be found in the culture. It’s so much about espousing one’s opinion really loud. And whoever’s loudest wins. Whoever uses trickery or whatever wins. And that’s to the detriment of the entire culture. And everybody feels bad that things are splintered. And that’s where we are.

So right now, what I have to realize is, for half the country, they felt the same way when Barack Obama was elected. It was a blow to them as much as it is a blow for me and the people that I know, that Trump is President. The fact of the matter is, with the band, with Pink Martini, there are a lot of Trump supporters who like Pink Martini. A lot of conservative people like the band. I think the role of the band right now is to actually try to be true diplomats and true ambassadors, in trying to begin to create atmospheres in which people who are entirely different from each other can sit in the same hall or be in the conga line together and then start to quietly, hopefully, start to build relationships and start conversations that are reasonable and not incendiary. That’s the ideal goal. And it’s hard. It’s really hard work to actually have those kinds of discussions. It’s really tough.

But it’s clinging to the idea of - we’re all in this together and we have to make the best of it and try to find the commonality. I think that it’s a really challenging time in that way. Wim Wenders says you have to change the images of the world so as to change the world. And there are no images of diplomacy in the culture right now. Saying I’m sorry doesn’t really exist. And listening doesn’t necessarily seem to be represented in modern culture. We’ve got some big problems to overcome and to deal with.

The other thing is, this land is a country of immigrants who slaughtered Native Americans and who enslaved black people. And so we were founded on a faulty premise. I wish that there was more of that kind of perspective, but it’s not really acknowledged, largely.

PCC:
Do you get a sense that with that sort of backdrop now, feel-good music becomes more important than ever?

LAUDERDALE:
I think so. The kind of music that we do play and the atmosphere that we create, it’s not like Bob Dylan or Janis Joplin. It’s not causing a revolution. And I think that there does need to be some sense of hope, as we move forward. And I think the band can be part of that.

There’s a really good quote that the American ambassador [Matthew Barzun] has repeated recently in London, which is, ‘Diversity is a fact; inclusion is a choice.’ And the band has always chosen to be inclusive.

PCC:
And the band has always chosen really diverse material. Is there a connective thread through all of that eclectic repertoire?

LAUDERDALE:
Yeah, that is precisely the point. I grew up in a multicultural household. My white parents both adopted a rainbow tribe of children. I have an African-American brother and an African-American sister, an Iranian brother and I’m the mystery Asian. I’m the oldest. And then my father came out of the closet and my parents got divorced, but remained best friends and we all moved to Oregon together, which was a little bit more liberal than rural Indiana, where my father had a plant nursery. And I grew up studying different languages. I participated in a foreign exchange program with Japan the summer between my sophomore and junior years.

And in terms of the music, I like songs in different languages. And I really admire singers like Nat “King’” Cole and Connie Francis, who did multiple albums in different languages. I think that’s great. You know, The Beatles sang in German, for example. There’s a whole history of that. And there’s less of that these days. I think there should be more of it, if anything

PCC:
And the new album’s title, does that represent saying “yes” to life?

LAUDERDALE:
Yes. The whole album, like everything else, is just an expression of my gut instincts. And again, there wasn’t any real thesis. It only becomes clear in retrospect now that this is an album for now - and hopefully it won’t have a shelf life. I think that the message of inclusion and empathy and kindness and grace and beauty, hopefully, knows no shelf life.

PCC:
The listener certainly comes away with an upbeat feeling from the music. Are you in a particularly happy place in your own life at the moment?

LAUDERDALE:
I am, actually. I’ve got a new boyfriend [Hunter Noack] who is a better pianist than me. I’ve been going out with him for two years. And I like my friendships. I love the city in which I live. And I’m hopeful about the future. I majored in History and Literature in college and I’m very much an historian. And I like a relationship with the past. I live in a building that was built in 1878, after 22 blocks in downtown Portland were set fire to by an arsonist, who was anti-Chinese, because there were a lot of Chinese immigrants in Portland at the time.

I like living in downtown Portland, in the business district, where nobody lives, and having a supporting organization of about 20 musicians and crew. The fact that we’re able to be an independent American band, playing this kind of diverse repertoire in different languages, and actually still making a go of it 22 years later, is a miracle to me. I’m so grateful.

PCC:
With Hunter, is it valuable to have someone who understands music? Do you to bounce ideas off of him?

LAUDERDALE:
Well, not only that, but he’s a hardcore classical pianist, went to USC. So his discipline is very helpful to me, as one who, you maybe can imagine, is a bit distracted.

PCC:
You mentioned Ikram and you have Kathleen Saadat, also vocalizing. All these new voices enrich the project. But talk a little bit about the magic of your terrific regular singers, China Forbes and Storm Large.

LAUDERDALE:
Well, China I’ve known since 1988. So nearly 30 years. She and I went to college together. We lived in the same college dormitory as upper-class people. And she was the queen of the dining hall. She and I would break into one of the practice rooms at three o’clock in the morning and she would sing opera arias by Puccini and crazy versions of “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand. And it was just so much fun. And so when the band first started, I didn’t get along with the first singer, and I suddenly remember China. She was in New York doing a folk-pop-rock kind of career. And I tricked her into coming to Portland and flew her out again and again. Finally, three years later, she moved to Oregon. And I think she loves it.

The thing about China’s voice, it’s so uplifting. But it’s a reasonable voice. It’s not like a soprano. You can sing along and soar along with China Forbes, which is why, I think, people love her so much, is that it’s approachable splendor.

And Storm is a totally different singer. She’s a rock ’n’ roller at heart, punk rock almost, and approaches the material from a punk rock sort of standpoint, which I think is very exciting. And nobody can get a Conga line going like Storm Large. And Storm really came to our rescue, when China had vocal troubles, had vocal surgery. Storm had never sung in a foreign language before. But I knew she could do it, because she’s smart. And so she learned like 10 songs in five languages in four days… and has been singing with us ever since, sort of dividing the time with China. Having two singers is actually great, because it means that things don’t ever become stale or rote.

And I’ve always liked the concept of a variety show. One of the few television shows we were allowed to watch as children was “The Muppet Show.” I just loved that, because it’s like entertaining and fun and inclusive and lovely. Somebody originally described the band as “Lawrence Welk on acid.” I love that idea [laughs]. I can’t speak to the acid part of it so much. I think I took it accidentally once. But the sound of it seems right.

PCC:
The band is certainly bubbly.

LAUDERDALE:
[Laughs]

PCC:
So 22 successful years in, what are the most rewarding and the most challenging aspects of your life in music?

LAUDERDALE:
Well, the most rewarding and also the most challenging part is having history with everybody in the band. Most of the band members, I’ve been working with for 15 to 20 years and that comes with all kinds of things, which are good and bad… good and challenging, I should say. And it’s been great. Early on, we developed a relationship with Johanna Rees and the Hollywood Bowl and then Disney Hall. And KCRW actually was our biggest champion. I guess we were one of the first things that Nic Harcourt championed. And that was really luck and timing. And somehow, our version of “Que Sera, Sera” hit a nerve with Los Angeles. And it’s almost like our second home. Our second homes, it’s between Paris and Los Angeles… and maybe a little bit of Istanbul. But those three cities have been given us incredible opportunities.

PCC:
And you’ve also developed an incredible, longstanding relationship with your audience.

LAUDERDALE:
Yeah. You know, they’re very loyal. Young, new audiences are less loyal. They’re kind of like in and out and not a real relationship. But I think our audiences are really loyal. Now there’s a generation that kind of grew up with us, whose parents were listening to us. It’s sobering to have people who are 25 years old, coming through the lines, saying that they grew up with the band. [Laughs] It’s amazing. But I guess that’s what happens.

I grew up listening to Ray Coniff, Ray Charles, The New Christie Minstrels, Roger Miller, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the soundtrack to “Jesus Christ Superstar.” I have a great amount of sentimentality for those six groups of songs.

PCC:
Wide-ranging.

LAUDERDALE:
Right. [Laughs] I think that sort of explains the band - Ray Charles, Ray Coniff, The New Christie Minstrels, Roger Miller, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the soundtrack to “Jesus Christ Superstar.” It kind of sums up the band, in a way.

PCC:
And the diversity of the influences probably partly explains the band’s longevity.

LAUDERDALE:
Well, yes. It’s limitless, because we do songs in different languages. What we can do, there’s no end to it. There will always be a new language to consider.

For the latest news and tour dates, visit www.pinkmartini.com.