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The retro-minded, multilingual, virtuosic musicians of Pink Martini gleefully trip across boundaries with each new album. Splendor in the Grass, their latest, is no different. Jam-packed with unlikely excavations, inspired collaborations, obscure covers, and lyrics in languages ranging from Japanese to Neapolitan, it’s a gift to music magpies the world over. We asked Portland, Oregon-based bandleader (and walking music encyclopedia) Thomas Lauderdale for an insider’s tour of the track list.
Ninna Nanna
Written by Alba Clemente and Massimo Audiello
I was amazed that in the nineties, Alba had four children and stayed out really late at Jackie 60 on Tuesday nights. We flew her out with at least six drag queens from there, and they sort of scandalized Portland. We wrote “Una Notta in Napoli,” her first foray into songwriting, and I asked her if she’d ever consider writing a lullaby, so she and Massimo came up with “Ninna Nanna.” In the middle of the song, I thought it made sense to sample Hugo Alfvén’s “Swedish Rhapsody #1,” which comes from a music box from my childhood. It kind of just goes along with my whole idea that it’s best to collaborate with people who are not songwriters, because what comes out is unbelievably beautiful.
Ohayoo Ohio
Written by Dan Faehnle
Our guitarist had this one faster and drummier when he wrote it. When he wasn’t looking, I slowed it down and recorded it with bongos and congas and added some vocals. The inspiration for the vocals is very much Ward Swingle. “Ohayoo” means hello in Japanese, and since Dan is from Ohio it seemed funny.
Splendor in the Grass
Written by Thomas Lauderdale and Alex Marashian
There was this, let’s say, “art film” from the mid 70s and during one sequence I said to myself, “This is a great song.” I called the film director in Palm Springs, who said he had no idea what the song was because he was too loaded at the time. We played it in Carnegie Hall last spring and got two letters from fans that said we had to check out “Burning Bridges,” from a 70s Clint Eastwood film. It turns out that’s where it comes from.
Out est ma Tete
Written by China Forbes, Thomas Lauderdale, and Alex Marashian
We had help from the Honorary Consul of France in Oregon, but just for the grammar-it’s not necessarily officially endorsed. It’s a song about losing different body parts in different parts of Paris. It’s a surreal language lesson, in a way. It’s always hard to know if certain things are going to fly in France. [Pink Martini's 1997 hit single] “Sympathique” was nominated for Song of the Year there, and whenever French workers strike, it’s sung or referred to. But work is one thing, losing body parts quite another.
And Then You’re Gone
Written by Thomas Lauderdale and Alex Marashian
This and “But Now I’m Back” are based on the same piece by Franz Schubert. It’s for one piano and four hands and it’s about 15 minutes long. Alex and I were sort of fiddling around with it and the phrase “And Then You’re Gone” popped into our heads. There’s that song Madeline Kahn sings in Blazing Saddles, “Tired of Playing the Game,” and the “I Will Survive” strings that we managed to incorporate into this one.
But Now I’m Back
Written by Thomas Lauderdale and Alex Marashian
The band didn’t like “And Then You’re Gone” at all. So Alex and I went and picked some berries, sat on the beach, and came up with another song based on the same Schubert. With this album, there was a lot of stuff that I pushed through-in the past, I really tried to make everybody happy.
Sunday Table
Written by China Forbes and Thomas Lauderdale
We wrote this one spring morning eleven years ago, in China’s Christopher Street apartment. It’s just sort of about that moment where you pass a stranger on the street and have a tiny love affair for two seconds.
Over the Valley
Written by China Forbes and Thomas Lauderdale
China definitely took the lead on this one. She was inspired by Jimmy Scott-that concept of singing slowly and behind the beat-and the view of the Tualatin Valley from her house. Oregon is totally full of splendor, and it’s a great place to work. There are like 900 bands based in Portland, including the Gossip. I saw Beth Ditto a couple nights ago and started talking to her about playing with a symphony orchestra, which would be awesome.
Tuca Tuca
Written by Gianni Boncompagni
This is an Italian song first sung by Raffaella Carrà. Phil Baker, our bassist, stunned us all with his sitar magic. We got our hands on the actual sitar played by Peter Sells in the movie The Party. A friend of mine, her husband was an exec at the company that produced it and he was allowed to take anything off the set. Wisely, he chose the sitar. It now sits in my loft.
Bitty Boppy Betty
Written by Alex Marashian
This song is about a cross-dressing district attorney and almost didn’t make the cut. I thought, “They’re not gonna like this in Utah.” The thesis statement is that “life’s a lot richer with a healthy mixture,” and the more I got into it, the more I had to defend it.
Sing
Written by Joe Raposo
This song was written for Sesame Street in the 70s and I’ve always made fun of it. But two summers ago, Emilio Delgado, who plays Luis on Sesame Street and whose wife went to my high school, needed to learn it for an audition, so he came to me and we struck up a friendship.
Piensa En Me
Written by Agustin and Maria Teresa Lara
I’d been wanting to record with Chavela Vargas for years. She had a burst of energy in June, so we sent a sound engineer down to Mexico City. I wanted her to do “Yo Te Quiero Siempre”–not the Dolly Parton song, a different one–but at 90, she didn’t really want to learn a new song. She offered three suggestions, and this was one of them.The great thing is that I was able to hand the recording to Pedro Almodovar, who has loved Vargas for years, a few weeks ago in New York. He was definitely excited to get it.
New Amsterdam
Written by Louis Hardin, aka Moondog
Moondog was a blind, homeless composer based in New York. He stood at Columbus Circle for 30 years, where he was known as “The Viking of Sixth Avenue,” but very few people knew he was an incredible avant-garde composer. This was a song on one of his last albums, recorded in 1995, and I used it as the leitmotif of the soundtrack I did for Chiara Clemente’s Our City Dreams. The original calls for nine saxophones. I think it’s the most beautiful song ever written about New York City.
