For exactly 30 years, Pink Martini has been taking us on exhilarating journeys full of swing and elegance. "Pink Martini is an exuberant once-around-the-world adventure." This is how pianist, band founder and leader Thomas M. Lauderdale aptly describes his unique, international orchestral project. And indeed, the 14-piece formation with charismatic lead singer China Forbes has been filling concert halls from North and South America to New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Europe since it was founded in 1994. Pink Martini has also worked with stars and orchestras from all over the world, singing in English and Arabic, Spanish and Japanese, Portuguese and Modern Greek and so on and so forth. The album "Get Happy" alone, released in 2013, is sung in nine languages.
Pink Martini offer a risk-taking mix of jazz (mainly swing), world music, cabaret, lounge and film music from the 1940s and 1950s, with influences ranging from Cole Porter and Duke Ellington to French icon Edith Piaf and Latin greats such as Xavier Cugat, Beny Moré and Tito Puente. She has also been inspired by music from all over the world, including French chanson, Afro-Cuban salsa, Argentinian tango, Brazilian samba and bossa nova, Italian folklore, Greek rembetiko, music from the Middle East and Asian music.
Beneath a subtly cultivated surface, sometimes old-fashioned but always glamorous, Pink Martini's music is brimming with humour and cheeky fantasy. The American band, founded in Portland (Oregon), was discovered in France in 1997 after being invited to a stylish showcase at the Cannes Festival. Even then, the voice of China Forbes exuded a jazzy charm that made the distinctive title "Sympathique" the song of the year in France, and later gave its name to the album, which went platinum. Global, but with a rare intimacy with her audience, Pink Martini will only be performing once under this sun, and exclusively in Rottweil on 17 May for the grandiose and glamorous Jazzfest 2025 finale!
