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Jazzy Fabulous

by Richard Bradley
May/June 2007

When Thomas Lauderdale, founder of the popular band Pink Martini, arrived at Harvard from Oregon in the fall of 1988, he had no intention of pursuing a musical career. Though a student of classical piano, Lauderdale hoped to run for mayor of Portland one day. He was a natural politician: During his first week in Cambridge, he baked hundreds of chocolate chip cookies and distributed them to classmates as a means of introducing himself.

One student Lauderdale would meet was a fellow Adams House resident named China Forbes, an aspiring actress and singer from Cambridge. “She and I would break into the lower common room in Adams House, and she would sing opera tunes while I accompanied her,” Lauderdale recalls. Over 15 years later, the two still make beautiful music together. Pink Martini, with Lauderdale on piano and Forbes on vocals, has just released its third album, Hey Eugene!, and is in the midst of an East Coast tour that will take them to Carnegie Hall in June.

Lauderdale started Pink Martini in 1994, inspired by the glamour and romance of an era he loved. “If there was a band in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I imagined that would be its name,” he says. When the original vocalist didn’t work out, he thought of Forbes, who was busy singing in New York City clubs. The band’s first album, Sympathique, sold an impressive 750,000 copies. The 2004 follow-up, Hang on Little Tomato, has amassed sales of 550,000. Hey Eugene!, named after the record’s poppiest song, seems poised to do better still.

Pink Martini’s sound is not easily categorized. Sampling from past decades and far-flung countries, the group sounds like Judy Garland meets the Rat Pack with a dose of 1930s Havana and West Egg mixed in. Hey Eugene! includes songs sung in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. Somehow, it all works: The album is gorgeous and lush, a 20th century musical tapestry that nonetheless feels happily current. For Lauderdale and Forbes, this musical diversity stems from the creative freedom they enjoyed at Harvard. Adams House, Lauderdale explains, “was a huge concentration of fabulousness.” He fit right in, walking around campus sporting a cocktail dress and a platinum blond hairdo. On occasion, he dressed up as a rabbit. As a senior, Lauderdale threw a party that resulted in the permanent closing of the famed Adams House pool. He recalls fondly that, “at three a.m., the house master walked in to find 75 naked people running around.”

The pool may be shut down, but Lauderdale and Forbes have found a way to keep the fabulousness alive.