Music
Pink Martini
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Keith Bruce
five stars
LIKE many gay entertainers of past eras, Pink Martini's gifted leader, arranger and pianist, Thomas Lauderdale, is effortlessly doing more than much earnest subsidised artwork to break down many barriers of prejudice. The ebullient musical director was barely on stage before he defined himself as "blonde Asian fruitcake", and much of this set by his highly accomplished tentet, four of whom are percussionists (an inspired, if surprising, line-up which I may have commented on before), revolved around his re-use of themes from classical music (often Schubert), which might have been designed to allow him to share the piano stool with handsome Guildhall graduate Hunter Noack.
In return for trucking on the merchandise for Lauderdale's amusingly extended pre-interval vinyl sales pitch, Noack had a solo spot playing Ravel, which was as enthusiastically accepted as the group's vocal repertoire in Armenian, Arabic and French. It is the eclectic Pink Martini way, but its brilliance is lightly worn.
Besides bouncy Lauderdale and his classical penchant, the other key ingredient is comparatively understated vocalist China Forbes, his comrade in arms from the start – a relationship made explicitly clear in a set that was as much a journey through the back catalogue (available in the foyer) as it was a showcase for excellent new disc Je dis oui! It was, however, that titular chorus from the new album's opening track, Joli Garcon, that really got the party started – one of three from the soundtrack of a new Isabelle Huppert film, Souvenir, which most of this audience will surely be breathless to catch, once they have recovered from the conga around the stalls to Ary Barroso's Brazil.
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