What: Pink Martini
Where: Butchart Gardens
When: 7:30 p.m. Monday
Admission: Concert comes at no extra charge with regular gardens admission. Garden entry rates are $30.80 for adults, $15.40 for youth and $3 for children. Festival seating. Patrons are encouraged to bring a blanket or a chair.
Pink Martini was already a fun party. And then ... along came the von Trapps.
The von Trapps are descendants of the famous Trapp Family Singers, who inspired the film The Sound of Music. The four young vocalists — whose grandfather was Werner von Trapp — teamed up with Pink Martini for the band’s 2014 recording Dream a Little Dream.
The disc includes such Sound of Music classics as Edelweiss and Lonely Goatherd. What’s more, Las Vegas crooner Wayne Newton makes a guest appearance on Lonely Goatherd (he’s the gruff-voiced narrator).
Pianist Thomas Lauderdale — Pink Martini’s Harvard-educated, peroxide-haired, sometimes cocktail-dress-wearing leader — says he was thrilled to enlist the von Trapps. But when they suggested their pal Newton join them on the record, he was beyond delighted.
“I sort of flipped out and said: ‘That would be amazing,’” Lauderdale said from his Portland, Oregon home.
The von Trapps won’t be on hand for Pink Martini’s show at Butchart Gardens on Monday.
But there’s little doubt the 12-piece band will have sufficient neo-lounge magic on offer. The ensemble, founded by Lauderdale in 1994, specializes in a campy Hollywood-in-the-1940s sensibility.
Its musical menu is wide, ranging from Japanese 1960s pop to Brazilian sambas to, well ... songs made famous by The Sound of Music.
Something of a modern-day Liberace, Lauderdale says Pink Martini — which has sold three million albums — found left-field success by ignoring pop-music fashion.
He believes his band creates an oasis of “old-fashioned grace and loveliness” for a population “starved for beautiful melodies.”
Show biz is a breeding ground for flamboyant eccentrics. But it’s a safe bet Lauderdale, 44, carved his own niche long ago.
At Harvard, he enjoyed throwing elaborate parties and wearing dresses designed by Betsey Johnson. College students recall Lauderdale cavorting in bunny ears and underwear, handing out Twinkies and flowers, and singing You Are My Sunshine while wearing a fez.
When Pink Martini played the Royal Theatre in 2008, he told the Times Colonist: “I grew up wishing I was Patricia Neal. Or better yet, Mag Wildwood [a socialite character from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s].”
Chatting by phone this week, Lauderdale said Pink Martini’s goals have not changed since its inception.
“The mandate for me is this idea of bringing music which comes from various parts of the world in a beautiful, curated way to a wide scope of audiences — inter-generational, crossing all political lines. And finding joy and happiness [within that] despite the sadness all of us have at different times.”
Added Lauderdale: “[Pink Martini] feels like taking my college dormitory on the road.”
Before becoming a musician, he harboured political aspirations. He even dreamed of becoming mayor of his native Portland (for a time, Lauderdale worked in the office of Portland mayor Bud Clark).
Those ambitions haven’t entirely disappeared. However, Lauderdale acknowledges his current gig is pretty great. When not touring, he likes to throw parties in the 9,600-square-foot, three-storey historic building in downtown Portland he calls home.
“Why would I abandon running around, travelling the world, getting applause and having a comfortable life, rather than [as a politician] taking a pay cut of 75 per cent, having to face angry constituents and working under fluorescent lights?” Lauderdale said.
Last year he did attend Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Lauderdale found himself seated by another musician with a keen interest in politics: right-wing rocker Ted Nugent. At first, he had no idea who his seatmate was — and had to ask another guest.
“We talked about hunting and the fact [Nugent] carries his own machine-gun when he travels USO tours,” Lauderdale said.
“He’s pretty deaf. It’s safe to say he heard maybe 10 per cent of Obama’s speech.”