Musician Thomas Lauderdale has been witnessing a lot of political derisiveness since last month’s presidential election. On his first-ever visit to New Haven later this week, he plans to remedy it with two powerful tools.
The first is a multi-part band, ready to sing in 25 different languages while facilitating a new kind of community conversation. The second is a conga line.
At least, that’s the plan for Lauderdale and his Portland-based group Pink Martini, of which he is a co-founder, which will be performing at the Shubert Theater this Friday evening. In an interview with the Independent earlier this week, the longtime performer explained how he thought multilingual music and a serious, spontaneous mid-show dance party might alleviate political tensions.
“On stage, you see people who don’t occupy the same space,” he said. “We don’t have generally town squares where people intermingle, like they do in France, or Spain, or other countries. So the band becomes a unifier. I wish that culture was more empathetic and kinder — I feel like things have gotten really mean in culture and pop culture in general.”
That wish is pretty core to the group, which began performing with Lauderdale around 1994. At the time, Lauderdale, who now calls himself and the group “subtly political,” was fully political, working in politics with a thought toward running for public office in the city. At every political fundraiser he went to, the music didn’t measure up. So he assembled, through a network that stretched from Oregon back to his years at Harvard University, what he (and the group) still classify as a “little orchestra,” a hefty makeup of voice and instrumentals intended to cross borders in the course of one set.
That’s always been the case, Lauderdale said. From Pink Martini’s first single onward, members (and their eager listeners) were keen to stretch their understandings of global music. A French song, taken up by striking workers in France, flew from one lyricist’s page. A stream of Spanish came from a voice across the room. Two or three languages grew to 25. And the group, whose audiences grew as the name caught hold, established a sort of understanding: This was a chance to teach people about cultural diversity, without ever verging on preachy.
So when a tour for their new album Je Dis Oui! took on a slightly different meaning under president-elect Donald J. Trump — “with the election it just taken on a different meaning culturally,” Lauderdale said — members of the group thought of new ways to break down barriers with audience members, some of whom may not have voted for the same people. Cue the spontaneous dance parties, and on-stage conga lines.
“We’re not Joan Baez or Bob Dylan singing in the ‘60s,” said Lauderdale. “If anything it’s bringing a little bit of Breakfast at Tiffany’s to global awareness. But I think there’s a sort of subtle thing going on to sing songs in different languages — it’s kind of an inherently political act. I don’t specifically think that it should be, but the meaning of the band and its repertoire takes on different meaning.”
“Hopefully it’s a space which isn’t didactic or presumptuous about who is in the audience,” he added. “To appeal to different people, that’s been a constant message. Hopefully the people of New Haven will find it inspiring.”
Pink Martini performs at the Shubert Theatre this Friday, Dec. 16, at 8 p.m. Tickets and information here.
