Pink Martini

Since 1994, Portland’s Pink Martini have garnered a huge following both at home and internationally with their cool jazz sounds. In fact, they’ve been so successful that each of their two albums are well on their way to selling a million copies. The success of last year’s Hang On Little Tomato has led to Audiogram finally releasing the band’s 1997 debut Sympathique in Canada. It turns out that not much really changed for Pink Martini during their first decade — they sound just the same. There’s no denying that Sympathique is a polished record, but there’s really nothing here that they didn’t do better on Hang On Little Tomato. And, to be perfectly honest, there really isn’t much difference between the two records — both are perfectly nice, light jazz recordings that wouldn’t offend anyone at all. Hardly a recommendation, but not really a condemnation either.