James Last

James Last is a German big band leader with a large fan base in Europe, although he has never had a comparable following in the United States. Last's trademark is arranging pop hits in a big-band style; his series of "party albums" is equally well-known. Over the course of his career, he has sold well over 50 million albums.



Last learned how to play piano as child, switching to bass as a teenager. He joined Hans-Gunther Oesterreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra in 1946, when he was 17 years old. In 1948, he became the leader of The Becker-last Ensemble, which performed for seven years. During that time, he was voted as the best bassist in the country by a German jazz poll for three consecutive years, from 1950-1952. After the disbandment of The Becker-last Ensemble, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as for a number of European radio stations. For the next decade, he helped arrange hits for artists like Helmut Zacharias and Caterina Valente.

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