5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Thomas Mack Lauderdale of Pink Martini

Name  Thomas Mack Lauderdale

Best known for  The blonde Asian gay pianist/founder/bandleader of Pink Martini.

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Current city  Portland, Oregon.

Really want to be in  I love Portland, Oregon …. There’s no place I’d rather be.

Excited about  We just released an EP of four songs: our version of “Bella Ciao,” a protest of fascism; a French song from the early 1970s called “Pourquoi tu vis”; a song that was the soundtrack for a collaboration in 1946 between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali called “Destino”; and an original our singer China Forbes and I wrote called “Aspettami,” which is our version of a James Bond theme song.

We will release an album of anthems in the coming year.

We are also completing a collaborative album with the most prominent and famous Iranian singer of all time—the legendary Googoosh.

My current music collection  Is very diverse.

Preferred format  I prefer the sound of vinyl: more depth, likely recorded on 2” tape.

5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:

1

Eden’s Island, Eden Ahbez

This is maybe my favorite album of all time. Somewhere between Martin Denney and Jesus Christ (not Superstar, just Jesus himself). Dreamy, hypnotic, calming, incredible percussion. Eden Ahbez wore white robes and lived outdoors under the second “L” of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles for 30 years, with his wife and his orange juicer. He wrote the Nat King Cole hit “Nature Boy” and lived off the royalties for the rest of his life. He recorded the solo album Eden’s Island in 1960.

2

Getz/Gilberto, Stan Getz and João Gilberto

I never tire of this perfect and super-sexy album. Perfect for a love affair, parties, and vacuuming!

3

Duke Ellington Plays Mary Poppins, Duke Ellington

All of the great songs by Richard and Robert Sherman through the lens of Duke Ellington. I also love his 1958 collaboration with gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, Black, Brown and Beige featuring the song “Part II (Come Sunday).” He also made an album featuring his version of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt.

4

Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff, Sergei Rachmaninoff

The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s own recordings of his piano concertos. His second piano concerto is probably the best concerto ever.

5

Dream a Little Dream, Pink Martini and The von Trapps

Pink Martini’s collaboration with the von Trapps, the actual great-grandchildren of Maria and Georg von Trapp celebrated in the movie musical “The Sound of Music.”  I love most of our albums, but I think this may be my most favorite album we’ve ever made. August von Trapp wrote his first three songs for this album. The von Trapps sing in multiple languages. From Brahms’ “In stiller Nacht” to the ABBA anthem “Fernando” (in the original Swedish) to “The Lonely Goatherd” with guest appearances from Wayne Newton, the [film’s] original Liesl, Charmian Carr, and the animal champion Jack Hanna, Dream a Little Dream is dreamy and wonderful and is some of our best work.

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