In Memoriam: James Last and his Orchestra – Rolling Home, 2015

In Memoriam: James Last and his Orchestra – Rolling Home, 2015

It was with great sadness that the world learnt of James Last's passing on 9 June 2015. One of the best tributes I have read online can be found on the website of the British newspaper, The Telegraph, found here – as long as the html link stays up: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11665376/James-Last-band-leader-obituary.html.

This paragraph from the report sums it up beautifully for me:

[Being] always smartly dressed, Last was ubiquitous on German television, conducting his musicians for an audience of millions. He filled enormous concert halls and toured, playing more than 2,000 gigs in the course of his career.

He was particularly successful in Britain, where he had 52 hit albums between 1967 and 1986, making him second only to Elvis Presley in UK chart history; one British critic described him as being to music “what Harold Robbins is to literature”. He also had extraordinary staying power, continuing to perform at sell-out concerts until earlier this year.

Last composed some original melodies, including Happy Heart, which became a hit for Andy Williams and Petula Clark, and Games That Lovers Play (“Eine Ganze Nacht” in German), which was recorded by Eddie Fisher. But his true forte was rearranging the compositions of others. His formula was simple. He would take a popular chart hit (or well-known classical piece: Strauss (the Johanns) and Mozart were favourites) and orchestrate or reorchestrate it, smoothing off the harder edges and introducing a disco-friendly beat. “I just take songs that I like, make new arrangements and millions of people from China, Australia, America and Britain like what I do,” he explained.

I am a relatively latecomer when it comes to the music of James Last. But many fans in Singapore remembered him for his ‘Non-Stop Dancing’ and Party albums. It was only much later that an appreciation developed for his large catalogue of light classical albums. It was just recently that I listened to James’ classic ‘Games that Lovers Play’ within a Reader’s Digest compilation that brought quite a few tears of joy on a beautiful sunny morning. Of course, when sung by Vic Damone, the lyrics were gently warning lovers to be true to one another, but the instrumental version conveyed warmth, joy and good spirit on an entirely different plane altogether. Listen to a recent full house concert recording of James last performing ‘Games that Lovers Play’ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmeDMGFL_jM, and you’ll know what joyful music this is!

 

In my modest James Last collection, I have INSTRUMENTALS FOREVER and the double disc set THE TROPICAL COLLECTION released by Polydor in 1993. I particularly like the tropical beach carnival evoked in the double disc set featuring favourites like ‘Quizas, quizas, quizas’, ‘Siboney’, ‘La Bamba’, ‘Tico Tico’, ‘La Cucaracha’, ‘Copacabana’, and the fabulous version of ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ featuring flautist Berdien Steinberg. A surprise was the vocal interpretation of the Quincy Jones hit from 1980 ‘Ai No Corrida’ which made good tropical sense since its rhythm structure matched the Latin Tropical theme. Last manages to capture the moods of his themed albums so perfectly and then leave you wanting more in his next offering. ‘INSTRUMENTALS FOREVER’ proclaims on its sleeve what Cap’n James wanted exactly to do: immortalize in his own style the greatest instrumentals – especially from the Latin songbook. ‘Amor, amor, amor’ is in there along with ‘Brazil’, and another Last classic ‘Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom Wine’. This latter version is a class apart from Perez Prado’s version simply because Last arranged it for a layered trumpet sound plus the backing of what comes across as a ‘marimba’ back beat. Finally, another James Last classic must be mentioned: ‘Biscaya’ with its accordion lead and folksy string sound take you to the wide open rural pastures of beautiful Europe from Ireland, to southern England, to coastal France and right into the heart of the scenic German highlands. Listen to ‘Biscaya’ here, courtesy of a kind James Last fan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzOJ2z-ERGU . For others, they’d prefer to remember his disco date with ‘Charmaine’, reinventing Mantovani along the way! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3yxiuZanEc] Reminisce with this beautiful cover artwork:

For now, there is probably no better send off for this easy listening legend than to revisit an aptly titled instrumental piece - ‘Rolling Home’ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ShtZa-0SY.

Viva James Last!

AC

June 2015