James Last

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James Last (born Hans Last; 17 April 1929 – September 2015), also known as Hansi, was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra.

Initially a jazz bassist (Last received the award for "best bassist" in Germany in each of the years 1950-1972), his trademark "good music" became his numerous best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 percent of his albums debuting in the UK alone.

Andy Williams and Petula Clark's interpretation of "Happy Heart" became a worldwide hit. According to the last, he has sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide in his lifetime (actual figures vary, for example, British Hit Singles & Albums (2006), which sold over 100 million copies in Germany, the International MIDEM Prize in 1969, and West Germany's highest civilian award, the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany), in 1978.

Last year, James Last's album This Is James Last was a best-seller in the United Kingdom for 48 weeks, and his song "Games That Lovers Play" has been covered more than a hundred times.

Last undertook his final tour before his death at the age of 86, when finding that an illness (which was never disclosed) had worsened in September 2014.

His last UK appearance at Royal Albert Hall in London was his 90th, more than any other performer except Eric Clapton. Last's signature sound included big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass.

Despite being derided by critics and purists as "the king of elevator music" or "acoustic porridge," his style and music were widely distributed throughout the twentieth century, including Japan, the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and Germany, where it became "the archetypal soundtrack of any German cellar bar party" and made him the "most commercially successful bandleader" in many nations and cultures, including Japan, the former Soviet Union, the United States and Britain,

Early life

Louis and Martha Last, both of Bremen, Germany, were born. He was Robert Last and Werner Last (aka Kai Warner), and he was his younger brother. His father was a city administrator in Bremen's postal and public works divisions, and Last grew up in Sebaldsbrück's suburb. At age 10, he began playing piano, but he could also play simple tunes such as "Hänschen klein" when he was 9. He didn't have any musical abilities as a mentor in his first music lesson. As a child, Last began playing more regularly with his second tutor and then moved to the double bass. During World War II, his hometown Bremen was heavily bombed, and he carried messages from air defense command posts during the raids. At the age of 14, he joined the Bückeburg Military Music School of the German Wehrmacht, learning to play bass, piano, and tuba.

After the war, he joined Hans Günther Oesterreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra. He was the conductor of the Last-Becker Ensemble, which appeared for seven years in 1948. In a German jazz poll for 1950, 1951, and 1952, he was voted the best bassist in the country. He was in-house arranger for Polydor Records as well as a number of European radio stations as the Last-Becker Ensemble disbanded. He was assisting in the production of hits for artists like Helmut Zacharias, Freddy Quinn, Lolita, Alfred Hause, and Caterina Valente over the next decade.

Personal life

Waltraud's first wife, Ernest, married in 1955; the couple had two children, Ronald and Caterina. Waltraud died in 1997 after 42 years of marriage. Last married Christine Grundner of Bavaria, two years ago. Last and Christine divided their time between homes in Florida and Hamburg. He lauded Christine and Ronald for their help with his music.

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