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CONCERT REVIEW: Pink Martini celebrates 30 years together on Oct. 12 at the Mahaiwe

After 30 years on the road, Pink Martini knows what pleases an audience. So they open their shows with their best-known tunes rather than make everyone wait until the end like other touring bands.

Great Barrington — In Terry Gilliam’s dystopian cult classic film “Brazil,” Sam Lowry, played by Jonathan Pryce, escapes the drudgery of his bleak, work-a-day life through a recurring daydream portraying him heroically rescuing a distressed damsel. The film’s recurring use of the song “Aquarela do Brasil” (AKA “Brazil”) symbolizes the protagonist’s yearning for freedom and a better world. Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that the song also closed Pink Martini’s show at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on October 12, to the delight of a sold-out crowd of old fans and new converts.

After opening with their elegantly snarky arrangement of Ravel’s “Bolero” on the 12th, the band launched into a series of songs starting with one of the group’s most popular hits, the smoldering “Amado Mio,” featuring the equally smoldering China Forbes, whose singing today is indistinguishable from what it was 30 years ago, thanks to a life on the road that apparently has excluded cigarettes and whiskey. Her voice is supple, clear, and powerful.

For three decades, critics and fans have despaired of finding words to describe the music of Pink Martini. The inexplicable brainchild of Harvard-trained political fundraiser Thomas Lauderdale, the Portland, Ore.-based band blends styles from classical and jazz to Latin, world music, and vintage pop, with songs sung in over 25 languages. But that doesn’t describe the band’s essence.

JazzTimes.com got it right when they wrote, “Pink Martini’s live show conjures a fantasy of ageless glamor. This is formal play, baroque and zany, ritzy but also childlike.”

Pink Martini may be from Portland, Ore., but in their music, the band has never strayed far from Havana. They frequently incorporate elements of Cuban and Afro-Cuban rhythms into their sound with songs like “Amado Mio,” “¿Dónde Estás, Yolanda?,” and even the French language “Où Est Ma Tête?.” The recent addition of Cuban-born percussionist Miguel Bernal to the band’s lineup attests to their abiding interest in all things Cuban and Latin.

Often described as a “little orchestra,” Pink Martini’s shows always convey a sense of innocence, joy, and curiosity. That is the band’s real essence. And this would be the case no matter what style they borrow from. It would even be the case were they exploring the musical styles of another planet.

Ritzy but also childlike? Yes, that’s it. That’s Pink Martini.

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