Enlarge Image

Pink Martini (NICHOLAS FRIESEN)

The 2011 Winnipeg International Jazz Festival went out on a soaring high note thanks to Portland's Pink Martini. The sprawling, genre- and globe-spanning collective — which is led by the ever-charismatic pianist/band founder Thomas Lauderdale — was a smash hit at the 2007 and 2008 Winnipeg International Jazz Festivals and, as evidenced by Saturday night's turnout, has built a sizable Winnipeg fanbase.

The audience's uncurbed enthusiasm made the Concert Hall a safe space for Pink Martini to take a few risks. "I have some bad news and some great news," Lauderdale said shortly after the band took the stage at 8:45 p.m. The bad news? Pink Martini's lead vocalist, the iron-lunged diva China Forbes, is undergoing surgery on her vocal cords and will not be touring with the band for the next six months. The great news? Pop/jazz songstress Lucy Woodward — who also possesses an impressive set of pipes — would be filling in.

Indeed, Woodward had big stilettos to fill — not to mention the fact she had to learn the multi-lingual material in three (!) days. Happily, she rose to the occasion and was absolutely show stopping behind the mic. Her vocal delivery was effortless — and you couldn't tell she had never performed in another language before (her version of Song of the Black Lizard, which is in Japanese, was absolutely gorgeous). That said, the band's setlist reflected the Woodward's language limitations; Bukra Wba’do, Pink Martini's lovely, lyrical Arabic song, was notably absent. She also seemed a little intimidated by the size of the audience when faced with filling the space between songs, but Lauderdale more than picked up the slack in the charming stage banter department. He's really the face of the band, anyway.

As with all Pink Martini shows, the set was a dizzying, raucous trip around the world, from the spicy, Latin-influenced Lilly to the gorgeous, mournful Croatian number In the Blue Dawn. Two of the set's biggest highlights came in the form of the Cuban-influenced And Then You're Gone and its compendium, the big, bombastic swing band number But Now I'm Back, which both have roots in Franz Schubert’s Fantasy in F-minor for Piano and Four Hands. But the most special moment of the night came when the band stripped things down and served up a breathtaking rendition of Mozart's much-loved violin concerto in G-major.

And the surprises didn't stop there. "Someone in the house complained that we didn't do our French song the other night," Lauderdale said, referring to the Sympathique, one of Pink Martini's earliest hits. "Is there anyone out there who can sing it for us?" The volunteer, a natural performer named Kyla, did a spot-on rendition that had everyone in the house clapping along. "Wow! That really paid off!" Lauderdale remarked with a laugh. She really was that good.

The Pink Martini karaoke didn't stop there. "You want it, you're singing it," Lauderdale told an eager fan named Paul, who was rather insistent the band play another of its hits, Hey Eugene! And so, up he went, and gave it a spirited go. He, too, was a bundle of energy.

From beginning to end, this show was note-perfect mix of highly technical musicianship and loose, go-with-the-flow improvisation. On this night, Pink Martini was fun, frothy and went down smooth.