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 Photo by Elena Ray
China Forbes, lead vocalist of the sophisticated and internationally acclaimed band Pink Martini, loves our desert. “I had a terrible headache when I arrived here. Then, I stepped off the bus, looked around, inhaled the clean air, and I immediately felt better,” she says. Pink Martini’s concert was a not-to-miss event during The Art of Food & Wine festival in November.
Forbes spent several hours relaxing poolside at Desert Springs JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Palm Desert with her band mates before heading off to a sound check at Desert Willow Golf Resort, the concert’s venue. Wearing an oversized green straw hat she purchased at the hotel gift shop, Forbes said, “We’ve been here before and played at a friend’s wedding in Palm Springs. I can’t believe how relaxed I feel here in just a few hours. I would love to come to the desert and play a gig once a month for six months during winter.”
The 12-member band’s music is so diverse that founder Thomas Lauderdale describes it as “1940s Hollywood musical meets the United Nations.” At Desert Willow, the audience grooved to Pink Martini’s signature style of jazz, Latin, and original classics. In the first 30 minutes alone, the band performed songs in Japanese, French, Italian, and English (their repertoire includes 12 languages). Nearer the end of the concert, audience members formed a conga line and a crowd gathered in front the stage, encouraging Pink Martini to play a bit longer.
“It was a great audience,” Lauderdale said after the concert. “We loved it later in the show when people were dancing around. That made it a lot of fun for us. We’re anxious to come back again.”
Meanwhile, the band was on its way to Hong Kong to perform at a private party sponsored by Cartier.
— Ellen Paris
Read a full interview with Pink Martini
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