James Last
James Last is a German music composer. He was a successful orchestra musician and an excellent jazz bass player. His music is popular in 150 countries. His series of party albums is famous. Throughout his career, he has sold over a 100 million copies of his albums. He has a huge fan following in Germany and throughout Europe.
Last was born on 17 April 1929 in the German city Bremen. His birth name is Hans last. He grew up in the suburban city Sebaldsbrück. He ran messages to air defence command posts when Bremen was attacked in World War II. He was the youngest of three sons and was advised to study music to avoid what his brothers were going through as armament factory workers. His musical career began in 1941 when he started learning to play the piano. He also learned to play double bass guitar. At the age of 14 he joined the Bückeburg Military Music School of the German Wehrmacht. In 1946, he joined the Hans-Günter Österreich Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra. His brothers were also part of this band. In the year 1948, he led the Last-Becker musical group which played American style big band jazz. He was also part of the musical groups James Last & His Hammond Bar Combo, James Last Band, James Last Und Chor and James Last orchestra.
Last’s first album was Die gab’s nur einmal. It was released in 1963. However, he got his breakthrough only in 1965 when his album Non Stop Dancing was released. It was a huge success. Continental Tango (1965), Instrumentals Forever (1966) Games That Lovers Play (1967) Humba Humba A Go Go (1968), Non Stop Evergreens (1969), Weihnachten & James Last (1973), Violins In Love (1974) James Last & Friends (1998), Gentleman Of Music (2000) are some of his famous albums.he had 52 hit albums between 1967 and 1986 in England. Non Stop Dancing was the first James Last Orchestra production (LP). It was a chartbuster in 1965.His dance music albums were very popular since they had lively and melodious music. He is a versatile musician. The fact that he has even done a hip hop single “Ruf mich an” is testimony to this. He worked on this song with the German hip hop group ‘Fettes Brot’. After Elvis Presley, he holds the highest number of records for his chartbuster singles.
In the year 2002, James Last and his orchestra toured in China. They became a big hit even in a ‘non-English speaking’ nation like China. In all his concerts he always included his classics alongside his current hits. In 1978 he received the German award Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande from Walter Scheel.- federal republic of Germany, in 1979, he received the ‘Goldene Kamera’ award from the ‘Hör Zu’ magazine. A german Jazz opinion poll nominated him as the best bass player of the year between 1950 and 1952.
Bass is his favourite instrument. His prefers music artists like Michael Jackson, Guns n´Roses, Nirvana, and Cher. His enthusiasm and love for music have not lessened with age. He is a hardworking and varied music composer even today at the age of over 70. Besides composing music, he is also very passionate about playing golf. He was a huge success in his days and today James Last is a legendary musician.
- Lovina S. Raymond
Tags: composer, german, james last, music, music composer, musician
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