In the mid-90s, there was a campaign to amend the Oregon constitution that sought to restrict gay rights. Thomas Lauderdale, a young political activist and pianist, was fighting against it. And music was the means.
Lauderdale connected with the midcentury-era trio the Del Rubio Triplets, after seeing them on the star-studded Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas special.
“They lived in a triple white mobile home in San Pedro, California. They wore matching mini skirts, matching booties, and they had huge hair,” Lauderdale says. “They played guitar, and they sang covers of ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ and ‘Whip It.'”
Lauderdale brought them to Portland, Oregon to do a series of concerts campaigning against the ballot measure in nursing homes, hospitals, even rotary meetings.
“And at the end of [each show] they would very sweetly say, ‘Please vote no on Proposition 13,'” Lauderdale says.
At the end of the triplet’s week on tour, Lauderdale had planned a community-wide concert, but he needed an opening act. He says he threw on a Betsy Johnson cocktail dress, hopped on stage, and Pink Martini was born. Growing to over a dozen musicians, they became the house band for political fundraising in Portland, and soon an internationally renowned, genre defying group.
And now, Pink Martini will travel to Sitka and Juneau in April for two benefit concerts for Katlian Collective, a nonprofit working to revitalize Tlingit clan houses in Southeast, starting with the Point House in Sitka. Clan houses are cultural centers for Tlingit people – places of ritual, community and tradition.
It’s a project that Pink Martini is happy to support. The band, known as the “little orchestra” performs in numerous styles, from jazz to classical to pop, and in over 30 different languages.
“We’re sort of musical diplomats and ambassadors, and sort of believe in the power of bringing people together through music,” says Lauderdale. “We have a 31-year history of doing this, and we’re so delighted to be coming to Alaska, to be part of be continuing in that tradition.”
Storm Large is one of the band’s lead singers, and this will be her second time touring in Alaska with them. She says often a band’s lead singer is the “mouthpiece” that carries its identity, but Pink Martini is different.
“It is one of the most relaxing front gigs, because I’ll sing a bunch of songs solo, and then I will shimmy back to the back…[and] Jimmie Herod will step forward, Edna Vazquez will step forward, or it’ll be a band solo, a piano with Thomas and his partner, Hunter Noack, on piano doing Rhapsody in Blue [and] the most hilarious physical comedy you’ve ever seen in your life,” Large says.
“It’s like Laugh In, kind of,” she continues. “It’s a big variety show, and everybody has an important role in unison. But I see Pink Martini as as a collective of wonderful, amazing, brilliant stars in their own right.”
Kiks.ádi clan member Lduteen Jerrick Hope-Lang says the work to rebuild Point House started out of a conversation with the late Bertha Karras.
“We walked by this chunk of property on our way to her house, and she said to me, just casually, ‘That’s your people’s property, and you need to get it back,'” Hope-Lang says. “At the time, I really had no idea, or no concept as to what tied me to that land, and what her impression was that I had any business being a part of it. So kind of led me down a rabbit hole to understanding what had been there prior.”
What came next was over a decade of work toward repatriating the land where the Point House stood. Hope-Lang now stewards the land on behalf of the Kiks.ádi. They hope to break ground on a 21st Century clan house sometime in the next year, and continue to address the broader issue of clan houses.
“I said, we need to rebuild, not just structurally, because this is a brick and mortar project, but we need to rebuild spiritually. And there’s ideas that tie to that property, that I just felt like…the time was ripe,” Hope-Lang said.
To address the broader issue, the group has received federal grant funding for their work and succeeded in getting the National Trust for Historic Preservation to recognize Sitka’s Indian Village as an endangered historic place. They’re also remodeling a 19th Century Kiks.ádi clan house four doors down from the Point House.
Hope-Lang says fundraising is key to keep the work going. Last year, Katlian Collective brought several big-name bands, including Portugal the Man, to Southeast and the concerts were a resounding success. So he reached out to his longtime friend, Lauderdale, with Pink Martini, who jumped on board.
“Last year was rock and roll and folk and singer songwriter, and this year, bringing Pink Martini into the fold, it really creates this open dialog of like, ‘We are inviting you. The purchasing of a ticket is an invitation to be a guest in our process,” Hope-Lang says. “You could be part of this restoration, this regeneration, this restorative practice.”
Hope-Lang says Pink Martini’s music encompasses the name of the show which is “Hit Wóoshdei Yadukícht, Dancing our House Together.”
Learn more about the work of Katlian Collective, Inc. here. Tickets to see Pink Martini at the Sitka Performing Arts Center on April 15 are available at www.fineartscamp.org
