Holiday in Pink
By Wes Hessel with Flo Mano
The small-scale multi-genre orchestra with the big sound, Pink Martini, sold out their one-night holiday performance, “A Season of Stars”, at the Auditorium, a celebration by the global musicians’ group of a diverse cross-section of tunes for the season and other favorites. The unique jazz international interpretations were amazing…
Edna Vazquez started subtly with “We Three Kings” and then an incredible rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy”, as well as getting the patrons to sing along to “Jingle Bells”. Founder/pianist Thomas Lauderdale’s dream of creating world music from classical, big band, jazz, and Latin sounds continues to bear fruit over thirty years now. With phenomenal talented trumpeter Thomas Barber, trombonist Achilles Liarmakopoulos, bassist Phil Baker, guitarist Dan Faehnle, violinist Nicholas Corsa, drummer Reinhardt Melz, percussionist Miguel Bernal, and percussionist/vocalist Timothy Nishimoto, the ensemble is on top of their game.
NPR’s Ari Shapiro sang Hanukkah songs in Yiddish, such as “Elohai NTzor”, and “Ocho Kandelakis” in Ladino; local singer, the talented Ikram Goldman, delivered in Arabic and is quite the “merch” promoter. Timothy Nishimoto gave us ¨White Christmas¨ in Japanese, and a New Year song “Gongxi Gongxi” in Chinese. Jimmy Herrod from “America’s Got Talent” added French and Spanish to the mix, while Mr. Lauderdale himself enticed the audience to dance to “Donde Estes Yolanda”, with a comfort that brought energetic vibe and smiles, people moving along in the aisles, creating a warm welcoming and joyous atmosphere. A mother and daughter won a signed poster as the most enthusiastic duo.
They also invited audience members on stage to sing along in French to “Sympathique”, which trickled to the shy ones in their seats, singing along as well, phones lit capturing the moment in unison, memories being made. A further highlight was singing ABBA’s ”Fernando” in Norwegian. The evening ended in a request from Mr. Lauderdale for the concertgoers to start a Conga line dance to “Auld Lang Syne” – euphoric. To see yourself such a beautiful broad mix of musical styles, visit www.pinkmartini.com for future performances; for more concert and other events of culture to experience and enjoy, please go to www.auditoriumtheatre.org.
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