Pink Martini is “mini orchestra” style jazz-pop group, formed 1994 in Portland, Oregon. This band is known for their high taste in old fashioned pop music with some hints of easy listening jazz sound, making them one of the most celebrated mini orchestra groups in the world. They wrote many multilingual repertoire, soundtracks for TV and widescreen movies, and performed all around the world. But they also known as less productive musicians, since their formation in 1994 to 2010 they only produced 5 albums (the first album, “Sympathique” was released in 1997, 3 years after their formation). They also troubled with their lead vocalist China Forbes who had to absent for few months to undergone vocal cord operation in 2011.
Fortunately, they had hidden some surprise for Pink Martini lovers. For over past two years Pink Martini has been working hard in studio to finish their double album, “1969” and “A Retrospective”. “1969” is special album because Pink Martini collaborated with a famous Japanese singer, Saori Yuki, as lead vocal to fill Forbes’s position. Yuki and Pink Martini collaborated to play some Japanese standard repertoire such as “Yuuzuki” and “Watashimo Anatato Naiteii?” and some other famous tunes like “Mas Que Nada” and “Puff the Magic Dragon”. As a singer with 42 years career in her home country, Saori Yuki had no difficulty to collaborate with Pink Martini, and gave her fabulous vocal in this album.
While “1969” is dominated with collaboration of Pink Martini - Saori Yuki, “A Retrospective” is much more colorful album, filled with 22 tunes, mostly kaleidoscope of their repertoire, and 10 tracks previously unreleased by Heinz records. This album includes their collaboration with Georges Moustaki, Michael Feinstein, Saori Yuki, etc.
“A Retrospective” will be released on September 26th (UK) and November 1st (US) and “1969” will be released on October 10th (UK) and November 1st (US). For preorder on Amazon, you can click the pictures below.
