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By Bill Oram
Early in Pink Martini's set Wednesday at Red Butte Garden, violinist Nicholas Crosa stepped forward, put bow to strings, and emitted a sad, melting Mozart concerto. Tears dripped from his strings.
So beautiful and unexpected from the Portland-based "little symphony" was the interlude that another member of the band, Timothy Nishimoto, left the stage to sit with the audience and snap photos.
We always can learn by listening to Mozart, but this performance especially revealed one undeniable truth about the state of Pink Martini.
"I have a feeling," a friend leaned and said to me, "if China were here they wouldn't be playing Mozart concertos."
Pink Martini may have the deepest bullpen of lead singers of any band in America. China Forbes, co-founder and co-face of the group, will undergo vocal cord surgery and be on the mend for up to a year. Her announced replacement was Storm Large, a rocker most famous for her appearance on Rock Star: Supernova in 2006 — and, if we're being honest, not being selected as the lead singer of Tommy Lee's new, now-defunct band, was possibly the biggest break of her career.
But, Large was also on the disabled list, pianist Thomas Lauderdale announced after a rousing opener of Ravel's "Bolero," having lost her voice at the last minute.
Out stepped Lucy Woodward, the soulful jazz star, who filled in for Forbes last month when Pink Martini played a weekend set with the San Francisco Symphony.
China Forbes is sound. Storm Large is fury. Lucy Woodward is sex.
There she was, in a lacy blue dress unhooked in the back, shielded by a warning from Lauderdale that she only had five days to learn the songs.
It didn't show but a handful of times. If Woodward were the original voice of Pink Martini, she might be considered the perfect fit for the band. But where Forbes is sweet and forceful, Woodward gives less away. She makes you ache.
It was on the first end of a doubleheader, with "And Then You're Gone" (Nishimoto followed with the partner tune, "But Now I'm Back") that Woodward hit her stride.
The biggest obstacle for any new Pink Martini singer is the languages. Forbes sings gracefully in more than a dozen. Woodward sings in, well, one.
"When we called Lucy, she said, 'I've never really sung in a foreign language,'" Lauderdale said.
"He said I could sing all the English songs," Woodward said. "He lied."
She then proceeded to power through the "Song of the Black Lizard" — in Japanese.
The band did well to protect Woodward from the ambition of its usual setlist. Of the 15 songs played, Woodward sang nine. Of those, three were in foreign languages (unless you count "Amado Mio," which, other than the phrase, Amado Mio, is in English).
At some point, though, you have separate singers' drama from the overall experience of Pink Martini. Live, the music, while tremendous, is less the focus, more a vehicle for the performance. Lauderdale is a virtuoso, his hands a high-stepping Riverdance.
The sound is tight, but the mood loose. Under cloudy skies, even the garden's flowers perked up for the more lively songs. Many bands can inspire a group of bachelorettes to dance at the front. But how many can make them dance the Charleston?
How many invite onstage anyone who feels like participating? And how could anyone there not feel like participating?
Pink Martini is in a rough place right now, searching for a quasi-permanent member to meet an unreachable standard. It shouldn't be too hard, though, because Pink Martini is so good at making everyone feel like it's part of the band. When not desperately wishing he knew how to dance the Charleston, Bill Oram is a sports writer for The Salt Lake Tribune. He can be reached at boram@sltrib.com. Follow him on twitter @oramb.