Pink Martini releases fourth album

Let the joyous news be spread! Pink Martini at last releases their fourth album, Splendor in the Grass today. You can buy it here.

As a long-time Jerry Curl obsession favorite, Pink Martini has been wowing audiences and critics alike for years. Internationally known for their style of mixing musical styles, they're a fresh and exciting band in a musical landscape that really needs it. And from what we've been able to sample on their MySpace page, Splendor sounds like another solid installment of great music. We'd expect nothing less.

The following is an excerpt from an NPR interview with Thomas Lauderdale and lead vocalist China Forbes:

The band Pink Martini draws its influences from a wide variety of places and music genres, which its members credit in part to their international audience.

For its latest record, Splendor in the Grass, the Portland-based band found inspiration for two of its songs from an unlikely place: a sheet of music left on band member Thomas Lauderdale's piano. Lauderdale, the band's pianist, had a copy of Franz Schubert's "Fantasy in F Minor for Piano Four-Hands" out when he was working with one of Pink Martini's producers.

The two started playing with the song, added a Latin beat and incorporated elements that were, according to Lauderdale, "somewhere between 'I Will Survive,' Shirley Bassey and Schubert, and the tango." The track described the plight of a woman who was once head-over-heels for a smooth-talking lover who disappears one day. As the song progressed, Lauderdale and his producer found themselves coming back to a single phrase that would become the song's title: "And Then You're Gone."

After a little tinkering, the song was presented to the band. At a rehearsal, it wasn't received as well as Lauderdale had hoped.

"The day we introduced this song to the band, nobody was happy," he says. Pink Martini lead singer China Forbes adds, "It was long and repetitive."

So Lauderdale went back to the drawing board, attempting to salvage the song by trimming it and adding a swing feel.

"Suddenly," he says, "we had not one, but two songs. So, you know, if you think this is repetitive ... try this!"

The rest can be found here.