chuckography

Mayor has a Pink Martini...

Pink Martini, a 13-person "Little Orchestra" from Portland, played at the Gaillard last Tuesday night.

It's the first time they've been to Charleston.

Mayor John Tecklenberg was invited by the leader Thomas Lauderdale to sit in on piano. He came out with his music chart, did a piece as Thomas' PhoneCam captured the musical moment.

At the end of the show, the Mayor was asked to lead a Conga line around the hall.

Handed a tambourine, his honor led a growing crowd up, down, and across the aisles to laughter and applause.

I don't recall former Mayor Joe Riley ever being asked to do that.

But, he did serve a span of 40 years, so it may have been requested.

I thought about joining the end of the line as he passed in front of me (twice).

Instead, I held back and wielded my camera to capture an interesting moment with our new Mayor.

Meanwhile, as they say, the band played on. It reminded me of Lawrence Welk when various band members took the microphone and sang .... in 9 different languages!

It was formed in Portland  in 1994, by Lauderdale, who was thinking about running for Mayor so he attended many speeches and observed that political rallies were ill-served by random musicians, hired to "entertain."

He felt they were underwhelming, lackluster and, mainly, just loud. These rallies deserved better so that was the origin of the group.

The talented lead singer was Storm Large, a 5-year veteran, who told the story of her first performance with the large group.

She had to learn songs in Spanish and Croatian, in 4 days.

Oh, and by the way, her opening venue was the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Even though I did not tag along on the Conga, it was a fun and eventful evening at the Gaillard Center.

Footnote: Received this email today:

Good afternoon, Chuck: Thank you so much for your e-mail and for the wonderful blog post and pictures detailing my performance with the Pink Martini Orchestra last Tuesday evening. I so enjoyed playing with them and leading the Conga line as well! I appreciate you sending me the pictures and blog to enjoy and share with my staff and family. Thank you for all you do to cover music in Charleston and beyond. Most sincerely yours, John J. Tecklenburg |Mayor City of Charleston|Executive Department 80 Broad Street Street|Charleston, SC 29401 T:(843) 724-3737 | tecklenburgj@charleston-sc.gov | www.charleston-sc.gov 54.77 GB (47%) of 116 GB used Manage Terms - Privacy Last account activity: 0 minutes ago Details

Labels: "Little Orchestra, "Storm Large, Conga Line., John Tecklenberg, Pink Martini, Portland., Tambourine, Thomas Lauderdale, Timothy Nishimoto

posted by chuckography @ 3:02 PM