Pink Martini's New Album 'Je dis oui!' Out Now; U.S. Tour Dates Confirmed

The band embarks on an extensive U.S. tour this fall and winter in support of the release, with stops at The Orpheum Theatre in Boston, Town Hall in New York City and two New Year's Eve concerts at Disney Hall in Los Angeles. See below for complete tour details.

The album title-pronounced "zhuh dee wee"-means "I say yes" in French, and is the optimistic mantra of the album's first single, "Joli garcon" (Pretty Boy), one of three songs co-written by the band for the soon-to-be-released film Souvenir starring legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert. The LP's 15 tracks, many of which are original, span eight languages: French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Xhosa and English. Lauderdale notes, "This is the happiest album we've made in years. And it affirms the band's 22-year history of global inclusivity and collaborative spirit."

Je dis oui! was the last album recorded at Kung Fu Bakery in Portland before it closed in June 2016. Lauderdale produced the album along with Oregon Symphony/Pink Martini English horn player Kyle Mustain. The recording was engineered by Dave Friedlander and Steve Sundholm, mixed by Sundholm and mastered by Bernie Grundman in Los Angeles.

The LP follows a highly successful few years for Pink Martini, who in 2014 were inducted into both the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. Also in 2014, the band released its eighth studio album, Dream a Little Dream, a collaboration with Sofi, Melanie, Amanda and August von Trapp, the great-grandchildren of Captain and Maria von Trapp, made famous by the musical and movie The Sound of Music. The band's 2013 release, Get Happy, received a rapturous reception from fans and press around the world, with Britain's Sunday Times raving that the album is "multi-lingual and defiantly cosmopolitan...the best disc the group have released." In 2012, the band was profiled on CBS Sunday Morning (the full piece can be viewed here).

Pink Martini was founded in Portland, OR in 1994 by Harvard graduate and classically trained pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale to play political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, affordable housing and public broadcasting. China Forbes, a classmate of Lauderdale's at Harvard, joined the ensemble in 1995. In the years xsince, Pink Martini's albums have collectively sold over 3 million copies worldwide, all on the band's own label, Heinz Records.

The ensemble has gone on to perform its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras worldwide including performances with the Boston Pops, San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.