Pink Martini: One part classy, 2 parts everything

When he moved to Portland, Thomas Lauderdale had every intention of running the place.

“I wanted to be mayor,” he said in a recent phone interview. “That was my plan. If I felt like I was electable, I would probably run, but I think I’ve done too many drugs and been in too many compromising positions.”

As the leader of Pink Martini, Portland’s multilingual, everything-old-is-new-again “little orchestra,” though, Lauderdale has found his place in town.

Though the band of about a dozen performers spends much of its time playing anywhere and everywhere — including Olympia on Wednesday and Tacoma on Jan. 15 — Pink Martini has a special place in the hearts and ears of its hometown, playing at such events as the city’s tree lighting and even a naturalization ceremony.

One might even call Lauderdale Portland’s mayor of music.

“That’s right,” he agreed. “The mayor who gets the applause. Let’s just keep it at that, and don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Lauderdale is passionate about politics: Pink Martini’s first performance was at a 1994 concert aimed at helping to defeat Measure 13, which would have made homosexuality illegal in Oregon.

He intended the performance to be a one-time event, but the band soon began performing at concerts for other progressive causes.

It still does.

“There are all kinds of battles to be fought,” Lauderdale said.

GOING BEYOND ISSUES

But raising funds for and awareness about political candidates, environmental concerns and music education is now sandwiched between tours that have taken the band to at least five of the world’s seven continents and engagements with symphony orchestras from the Boston Pops to the London Philharmonic.

The music, though, is strictly nonpartisan. It has global influences and unexpected juxtapositions, but the key aesthetic is as smooth, sweet and old-fashioned as, well, a pink martini. It’s witty and smart, but it goes down easily.

The band is known for versions of classic songs translated into a host of languages and for originals that sound like they could have been classics, perhaps in some just very slightly altered universe.

The results are eclectic to the max. The band’s 2013’s “Get Happy” is “a mélange of lounge music, jazz standards, Latin dance music and even a Scott Joplin rag that dates back to 1907,” Jester Jay Goldman wrote in a review for Spectrum Culture.

And referring to the album’s two singers and numerous guest artists — including Phyllis Diller, Rufus Wainwright and “All Things Considered’s” Ari Shapiro — Goldman came up with a line that captures Pink Martini well: “Nothing exceeds like excess.”

Think of a fashion designer who layers on the details for maximum impact or a chef whose creations are arranged into towers that look too pretty to eat.

If the execution is complex, Pink Martini’s aim is simply sweet.

“Now is really the time to be present and constant and truly committed to being decent and kind and empathetic,” Lauderdale said. “We need the grace and beauty.

“That’s the haughty goal for 2016.”

And that’s been his goal for some time. In a 2005 interview, Lauderdale lamented the lack of kindness and grace in popular culture since the ’60s.

“Our goal,” he said then, “is to create beautiful things that are going to last.”

THEN AND NOW

And he appreciates nothing more than beautiful things from the past.

“I don’t listen to a lot of stuff being made today,” Lauderdale said. Last month, he was spending time with holiday albums by The Carpenters, Rosemary Clooney and Dean Martin, along with Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and the original tunes from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

He has a soft spot for “The Sound of Music.” Pink Martini’s most recent album, 2014’s “Dream a Little Dream,” was recorded with The von Trapps, and the last time the group swung through South Sound, the great-grandchildren of Georg von Trapp came along.

This time, the little orchestra will be on its own, though it’s known for its collaborations with performers from Carol Channing and Wayne Newton to The Chieftains and legendary Japanese singer Saori Yuki.

Among those he’d like to bring into the Pink Martini mix are Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, Brazilian icon Chico Buarque, Johnny Mathis — and on a completely different note, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

“Then there’s always Doris Day,” he said. “That seems like an impossible dream.”

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Pink Martini: One part classy, 2 parts everything."