Pink Martini - Simply "Sympathique"

While dining is a Turkish restaurant in Inverdeen, Scotland just weeks ago, I was struck by the music, quite robustly bellowing from the speaker just above my table. In truth, I have a hard time sustaining a conversation or even eating with music playing in the background – it distracts me and lures me in like a lighthouse guiding a vessel to port. This was no exception, so I took out my iphone, clicked on the Shazam application which can identify the audio of a recording being played, show the artist, album, song title etc.

When Pink Martini’s name appeared, I was reminded that I haven’t aired them on Hg in a longtime.

This album is definitively a classic world music recording with songs in multiple language with cultural textures that fuse and bend genres sometimes in the same piece. Perhaps this comes from their makeup as an international ensemble. The group is interesting, innovative, traditional, polished and really, really talented instrumentally, vocally with clever adaptations of classic and original works that easily move between ballads and uptempo tunes with grace and precise musicianship. They’ve released other recording, though this one is my favorite, at least for now.