Photos: Pink Martini brings holiday cheer to Reno with festive swing show

Artown brought the 13-piece orchestra Pink Martini to the Grand Sierra Resort last Thursday, launching the holiday season. Artown provides opportunities for hundreds of artists and organizations throughout the year, creating a presentation of arts and culture for the Reno community.

Pink Martini was created in 1994 by Thomas Lauderdale, who had previously worked in politics. He found the music at political gatherings dull, so he decided to do something about that. He’s not in politics anymore, at least not as a career. Music seems to be a more enjoyable way to make a living. Pink Martini is fronted by Lauderdale on piano and China Forbes on lead vocals.

Pink Martini performed a holiiday set at Grand Sierra Resort. Nick McCabe / THIS IS RENO.

Their set started with an uptempo cover, “Tempo Perdido” by Ataulfo Alves, followed by “Amado Mio,” a tango from their debut album, “Sympathique.” By now, a heavy Latin motif filled the room. Arms were waving, and hips were swaying. Forbes’ vocals were stunning, while Thomas Lauderdale’s piano artistry, complete with dramatic arm gestures and staccato attacks on his Steinway, was hypnotic.

Couple this with the Latin stylings of Brian Davis on drums, Miguel Bernal and Reinhardt Merz on percussion (sometimes joined by Timothy Nishimoto), and the combined skills of the talented Pink Martini Orchestra, and you have a promising evening of music. Since it’s the holiday season, the setlist included several Christmas and Hanukkah songs.

Lauderdale introduced the first of the Hanukkah songs, “Ocho Kandelikas,” as their dance contest song for the evening, with the prize being their Christmas poster, which was autographed by the entire band. With a cheeky tone, he added that the posters were for sale in the lobby if you don’t win it. What a guy! With this, the front of the stage area was filled with dancers, as was a good portion of the theater.

All three backup singers, Edna Vasquez, Timothy Nishimoto and Jimmie Herrod, had their moments to shine. Midway through the show, Vasquez sang “Destiny” and “Patapan,” followed by Forbes joining Herron and Nishimoto on the Hebrew song “Elohai,” to name just a few of their collaborations. Herrod continued his solo portion of the show with a ramped-up, lightning-quick Barbara Streisand version of “Jingle Bells.”

Not wanting people to sit down, Lauderdale introduced the instrumental “The Flying Squirrel” as another opportunity to get up and dance, which it is. To my ears, it was reminiscent of Benny Goodman’s version of “Sing Sing Sing,” complete with the Gene Krupa tom tom solo. It was also an opportunity for Lauderdale and Forbes to take a break. Solos in this swing number included drums, guitar, bass, congas, trombone and trumpet. What a crowd-pleasing detour down “solo lane” that was.

Then they brought us back to the holiday celebration with a trio of Christmas songs: “Do You Hear What I Hear” featuring full Latin percussion rhythms and trumpet solos, with Forbes’ stellar voice as the icing on the cake, followed by a lighthearted, re-written version of “Santa Baby” reflecting the modern day “change of values” with Santa being the subject of unwanted advances. This section was capped off with a jazzed-up version of “We Three Kings” featuring trumpet and piano solos.

They jumped right from this into “Hey Eugene,” a non-Christmas song that Forbes wrote when she was 25 about meeting a boy at a party, giving him her phone number and him never calling her. It’s his loss. They closed their set with another Latin dance tune, “Dansez-vous,” inviting all to dance.

Hey Eugene! Do you remember me? I’m that chick you danced with two times.
– China Forbes

They encored with Dan Faehnle on acoustic guitar accompanying Forbes on “White Christmas,” Edna Vasquez then soloing on her song “Ixim Ixoq,” followed by Jimmie Herrod singing “Tomorrow” from “Annie.” Just before the final song of the evening, Lauderdale addressed the audience about their merch table in the lobby. He was humorously reciting everything available, sharing examples he had lying on his piano with the crowd. Then he held up his melodica and jokingly said, “$1,000 gets my melodica,” and a gentleman in the front row said he would take it for $500 if Lauderdale autographed it.

Shocked, Lauderdale responded, “Really?” They quickly closed the deal.

During the closing song, “Auld Lang Syne,” Lauderdale took the merchandise from his piano over to the man who bought the melodica. Lauderdale probably gave him a couple hundred dollars worth of bonus goods.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL, A GOOD NIGHT!