Pink Martini's delicious musical cocktail

IN just two hours on Tuesday, Pink Martini brought the sold-out crowd at Esplanade Theatre on a wild musical odyssey around the globe. It's easy to see why the Portland group remains so well-loved five years after their last visit here; their easy-listening, delicious world music cocktail - heavy on Latin rhythms - is infectiously sweet and goes down a treat.

Covering a selection of popular folk tunes from everywhere in addition to their own original lounge pop compositions, they are a diverse-sounding mini-orchestra capable of transporting the audience to the dingy jazz clubs of Cuba to the smoky izakaya joints of Japan and sultry night clubs of Shanghai and back; all without anybody having to leave the comfort of their seats.

The mastermind is Pink Martini's founder-conductor Thomas M Lauderdale, whose then-Harvard dorm-mate and now-core-vocalist of the group, China Forbes, told the audience is a massive fan of obscure vintage world music and everything they have ever recorded was introduced to them by their peroxide blonde musical leader.