Pink Martini

• How the band sums up its sound: "If the United Nations had a house band in 1962, we'd be it."
• Size of the band: big for a pop band, little for an orchestra (and including up to 12 members at a time)
• Size of the lead singer's stage presence: Large—Storm Large, that is, who could've been plucked from the stage of the swankiest nightclub of just about any of the past seven or eight decades
• Size of the band's repertoire: enormous, spanning classical, jazz, standards, and pop from all over the world
• Origin story: While working in politics in the '90s, pianist Thomas Lauderdale found himself appalled at the low quality of music played at fundraisers?and set out to create an ensemble whose appeal would transcend party lines.
• A few famous collaborators: Rufus Wainwright, Carol Channing, the original cast of Sesame Street, and the von Trapps (actual descendants of the Captain and Maria), with whom they just released the album Dream a Little Dream