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Product Description
Review
Album number four from the always delectable Portland, Oregon-based Pink Martini is, as you would expect, an impeccably crafted blend of intimacy and exuberance.
Cheeky, chic, sassy, clever and sexy in equal measure, it shows the baker’s dozen-strong outfit maturing with a sure-footed, lightly worn elegance. Marrying American irreverence with European sophistication, Splendor in the Grass offers up nine new tracks and four covers in a package that triumphantly sounds like Dean Martin in World Music mode.
Inking in the distinctively retro signature sound, it transports the salon lounge into freewheeling global musical lebensraum with songs in five languages, all dispensed with a winningly understated savoir faire. The title track sounds like Mama Cass covering Walt Whitman and Wordsworth with the soaring string melody from Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 adding epic emotion to the miniature marvel.
There’s more surprising inventiveness in the sprightly leave-taking of And Then You’re Gone and its deliciously insouciant Big Band riposte, But Now I’m Back, both beguilingly built on the opening themes of Schubert’s F-minor Fantasy for four-hand piano to dreamily playful effect.
Sung in Neapolitan, Ninna Nanna is a haunting lullaby for a sleeping sailor who languidly ‘dreams in the blue’. Europe looms large elsewhere, with Oú est ma tête a witty and wistful French cha cha seductively delivered by China Forbes, and Agustin Lara classic Piensa en mi a lachrymose tribute to painter Frida Kahlo boasting a broken-voiced vocal from ex-lover and Mexican ranchera legend Chavela Vargas.
Guitarist Dan Faehnle’s jazzy instrumental Ohayoo Ohio (‘Hello Ohio’) is a love song of altogether lighter intent, the sitar-dotted cover of Rafaella Carrà’s Tuca tuca sashays with flirtatious knowingness, and New Amsterdam, with its loosely threaded jumble and sweet jangle of brass and youth choir, hymns New York with consummate aplomb.
Complete with barbershop quartet, joking brass, percussion and piano, Bitty Boppy Betty swings in every conceivable direction to sublimely comic effect while the bi-lingual take on Sing, originally written for Sesame Street and recorded by The Carpenters, counterpoints the sultry Latin croon of the programme’s Emilio Delgado (aka Luis) with a light-as-air children’s choir.
Pink Martini? Make mine a double! --Michael Quinn
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Pink Martini raise the concept of "easy listening" to a whole new level.
'Splendor In The Grass' is their fourth studio album and once again delivers
what we have come to expect : slick, warm-hearted, nostalgic and beautifully
executed music which brings a little joy to almost any listening context.
Humour is never very far away either but it is never vulgar or brash.
A nod, a nudge or a teasing wink is always enough to make a point.
The band are joined on this recording by the Harvey Rosencrantz Orchestra.
It is a happy marriage and adds a further rich dimension to the band's performances.
Singer China Forbes has a truly gorgeous voice. Never forced or overemphatic;
always easy on the ear. She has the lightest touch and a subtle understanding
of just what each song might need to reveal its inner magic.
There are fourteen tracks on the recording.
Opening track 'Ninna Nanna' is a warm, smokey number beautifully enhanced by
the perfectly judged string arrangement. It is reprised at the end in a stripped-down
interpretation for voice and guitar. A delicious appetiser.
The whole point of 'Ohayoo Ohio (Hello Ohio)' is Gavin Bondy's stellar trumpet playing.
The solo at its centre has some blistering runs which really do take one's breath away.
The Swingle-style vocals accompanying the piece are both charming and witty.
Title track 'Splendor In The Grass' really shouldn't work ! The inclusion of the
"big tune" from the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Op.23 piano concerto could
have been a disaster but somehow the assembled forces pull it off.
Mad as a box of frogs to-be-sure but curiously uplifting at the same time.
'Ou Est Ma Tete' finds Ms Forbes exercising her French with good grace and elan.
Thomas M. Lauderdale's cheeky piano and Mr Bondy's muted trumpet sustain
a canny late-night latin mood.
Singer Ari Shapiro puts in an appearance on 'But Now I'm Back' and gets into
the swinging quasi-tropical mood generated by the band augmented by a
hot brass arrangement (courtesy of Mr Bondy again).
You can almost smell the Bryclreem and caipirinhas !
Ms Forbes sings 'Over The Valley' (co-written with Mr Lauderdale) like an angel.
It sounds like a song you might have known all your life. Quite magical.
Italian gets an airing on 'Tuca Tuca' (the album is nothing if not International !)
The trombone is wonderfully sleazy and the sitar is a singularly strange inclusion.
The Betty-Tones barbershop quartet join Ms Forbes on 'Bitty Boppy Betty'.
It is an absolute hoot!
My only reservation about the project rests with the inclusion of a vocal
performance by esteemed 90 year-old Costa Rican singer Chavela Vargas
on 'Piensa En Mi'. The band's intention was doubtless born out of respect
and affection but there is no getting away from the truth that her voice
is sadly no longer the fine and stirring instrument it once was. Tempus fugit !
'New Amsterdam' is a dark and strangely affecting number.
A love letter to New York consummately performed.
Deceptively simple but intoxicating if you let it get under your skin.
Pink Martini's incomparable shtick grows from strength to strength.
Bewitching and Essential.
'Splendor In The Grass' is their fourth studio album and once again delivers
what we have come to expect : slick, warm-hearted, nostalgic and beautifully
executed music which brings a little joy to almost any listening context.
Humour is never very far away either but it is never vulgar or brash.
A nod, a nudge or a teasing wink is always enough to make a point.
The band are joined on this recording by the Harvey Rosencrantz Orchestra.
It is a happy marriage and adds a further rich dimension to the band's performances.
Singer China Forbes has a truly gorgeous voice. Never forced or overemphatic;
always easy on the ear. She has the lightest touch and a subtle understanding
of just what each song might need to reveal its inner magic.
There are fourteen tracks on the recording.
Opening track 'Ninna Nanna' is a warm, smokey number beautifully enhanced by
the perfectly judged string arrangement. It is reprised at the end in a stripped-down
interpretation for voice and guitar. A delicious appetiser.
The whole point of 'Ohayoo Ohio (Hello Ohio)' is Gavin Bondy's stellar trumpet playing.
The solo at its centre has some blistering runs which really do take one's breath away.
The Swingle-style vocals accompanying the piece are both charming and witty.
Title track 'Splendor In The Grass' really shouldn't work ! The inclusion of the
"big tune" from the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Op.23 piano concerto could
have been a disaster but somehow the assembled forces pull it off.
Mad as a box of frogs to-be-sure but curiously uplifting at the same time.
'Ou Est Ma Tete' finds Ms Forbes exercising her French with good grace and elan.
Thomas M. Lauderdale's cheeky piano and Mr Bondy's muted trumpet sustain
a canny late-night latin mood.
Singer Ari Shapiro puts in an appearance on 'But Now I'm Back' and gets into
the swinging quasi-tropical mood generated by the band augmented by a
hot brass arrangement (courtesy of Mr Bondy again).
You can almost smell the Bryclreem and caipirinhas !
Ms Forbes sings 'Over The Valley' (co-written with Mr Lauderdale) like an angel.
It sounds like a song you might have known all your life. Quite magical.
Italian gets an airing on 'Tuca Tuca' (the album is nothing if not International !)
The trombone is wonderfully sleazy and the sitar is a singularly strange inclusion.
The Betty-Tones barbershop quartet join Ms Forbes on 'Bitty Boppy Betty'.
It is an absolute hoot!
My only reservation about the project rests with the inclusion of a vocal
performance by esteemed 90 year-old Costa Rican singer Chavela Vargas
on 'Piensa En Mi'. The band's intention was doubtless born out of respect
and affection but there is no getting away from the truth that her voice
is sadly no longer the fine and stirring instrument it once was. Tempus fugit !
'New Amsterdam' is a dark and strangely affecting number.
A love letter to New York consummately performed.
Deceptively simple but intoxicating if you let it get under your skin.
Pink Martini's incomparable shtick grows from strength to strength.
Bewitching and Essential.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I was eager to hear Splendour in the Grass and pre-ordered to get it as soon as possible. Perhaps my expections were too high as I've been disappointed. Musically it's top notch, but it's the choice of songs, they just don't work for me. It gets off to a good start with tracks 1 & 2, but Splendor in the Grass is not for me, I hate rehashed tunes. By track 5 & 7 I felt I was listening to a musical. And track 11, Sing, I'd rather have the Carpenters. Sorry to be so negative. I loved Hang on Little Tomato, it was superb and bought quite a few copies for others as gifts. Unfortunately this doesn't live up to it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Pink Martini are an ensemble that has achieved a `cult status' deservingly so. Their albums are different: originals, pastiches, homage genuflections and the occasional wonderful spanner in the works. Their Christmas album was delightful (their latest release) because it took old warhorses and a few oddities and made a contribution to the idea of a `Christmas'. Their previous album `Splendor...' has all the elements that created their fan base but seems to follow a well thought out routine and therefore seems to lack their sparkle, dazzling in the first three albums. China Forbes can still furnish sincerity in whatever language she delivers the lyrics. And it is also the fault, if any, with Splendor in the Grass: it furnishes a sound that is now comfortable. An easy listening album made by excellent musicians, and for me the high point is adding new lyrics to `Burning Bridges' (Lalo Schifrin song written for the film `Kelly's Heroes').
Has Pink Martini fulfilled their cycle: Spring was Sympathique; the joys of Summer was `Hey Eugene!' and `Hang on Little Tomato'; Autumn is their `Splendor...'; and their Winter song `Joy to the World'.
In other words get the lot, but with Splendor, get the package with the DVD.
Has Pink Martini fulfilled their cycle: Spring was Sympathique; the joys of Summer was `Hey Eugene!' and `Hang on Little Tomato'; Autumn is their `Splendor...'; and their Winter song `Joy to the World'.
In other words get the lot, but with Splendor, get the package with the DVD.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Splendid on the ears
Love it. Everytime I play any of the Pink Martini CDs (I now own 4) I feel like I'm in a movie.
Published 9 months ago by watts where
Happy listening
We already had 2 Pink Martini CD's which we love. This CD Splendor in the Grass is as good if not better, lovely happy sounds. Really love it.
Published 10 months ago by Essex girl
The mind harmony [maseru] music with yPink Martiniz
@The mind is progressed in the expression of the middle of jazz and pop and the harmony [maseru] music is progressed. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Toshiya Nagaya
Hmm......
Not IMHO Pink Martini's best. Some tracks good - some mediocre, wish I'd downloaded just the better ones. Not overly impressed.
Published 15 months ago by Brighton Girl
A little disappointing
I quite like easy listening records, such as Frank Sinatra and Nana Mouskouri, so thought I would enjoy this too, judging from the other reviews. Read more
Published 18 months ago by T. Bently
Wonderful disc!
I like all the discs of Pink Martini and this one is not exception. Especially the first song of the disc, my daughter often falls asleep listening to it. Recommend it!
Published 19 months ago by Vera (Russia, Saint-Petersburg)
Splendor in the music
A lovely mix of fun and serious songs from this great group. China Forbes voice is fabulous and clear - you hear every words of the lyrics. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Jill K. Durran
Love it!
This is the 1st Pink Martin album I've liked! Production and sound quality are 1st rate. The music is eclectic but somehow 'works' and makes great late evening listening.
Published on 2 April 2010 by Emteq
Splendor in the Grass - Pink Martini
Heard title track on "Good Morning Sunday" with Aled Jones and was blown away - I had to have the CD so requested it for Christmas. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2010 by R. A. Heaps
Very smooth, very bland, not up to previous form
Very smooth, very bland, with a rather uninspired choice of songs. This album is a let down after their brilliant earlier albums "Hang on Little Tomato", and "Hey Eugene". Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2010 by Michael J. Law
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