"Live in Berlin" by James Last and His Orchestra
Composer, arranger, and band leader Hans "James" Last was born in Bremen, Germany and began playing piano at age 10. He later switched to the bass guitar and was voted the best bass guitar player in Germany three years running from 1950 to 1952 which incidentally is the only guitar in Last's band. While a studio conductor at Polydor, Last formed his first orchestra which was originally designed to be a studio orchestra. Last recorded his first album with this orchestra in 1965. Since that first album Last has released nearly 200 albums; received numerous awards including over 300 silver, gold, and platinum album awards; and sold over 100 million albums world wide.
While Last calls his group of musicians an orchestra, the name is a bit of a misnomer. The James Last Orchestra is somewhere between The Boston Pops and Chicago. The orchestra is comprised of strings, drums, percussion, horns, keyboards, a bass guitar, singers, and of course James Last as leader. While members are not dressed in jeans and a t-shirt they stop short of the traditional black time attire. In fact, while some members are dressed in the same outfit others are not. Something else that sets James Last's merry band of musicians apart from the typical orchestra is their demeanour on the stage they have fun. James Last is a household name in his native Germany and very popular in a 150 countries.
When James Last and his Orchestra returned home from a European tour in 1982 their performance in Berlin was recorded. The resulting DVD contains 12 numbers from that concert and lasts nearly two hours. Last's orchestra's performances are not really a concert, they are more of a show a gig that would rival any rock concert.