Harald Ende (February 15, 1929,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

- October 27, 2018,

), was a German

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

player who was active in the Hamburg music scene from the 1950s to the 1990s. He attended the local music school and was trained as a classical

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

ist. However, upon graduating, he soon found that in order to get steady work, he had to play in a more popular context. In 1958, he joined the NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk, or North German Radio) big band. He also worked as a studio musician for many popular German recording acts like

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born Berthold Heinrich Kämpfert; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the musi ...

. In 1968, he joined the

James Last Orchestra The James Last Orchestra was a German/multinational big-band orchestra. The orchestra was established in 1964 as a studio orchestra, led by jazz musician Hans Last. The orchestra started touring in 1968 and has been very popular worldwide. From 1 ...

, for which he had to learn how to play the flute;

James Last James Last (, ; born Hans Last; 17 April 1929 – 9 June 2015), also known as Hansi, was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist (Last won the award for "best bassist" in Germany in each of ...

himself taught Ende how to play the instrument. A

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

musician enamoured with the work of

Buddy Rich Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York ...

and

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

, Ende recorded and toured with Last until the end of 1979, after which he devoted most of his career to his work with the NDR big band, often backing up well-known jazz stars like

Joe Pass Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. Pass is well known for his work stemming from numerous collaborations with pianist Oscar Peterson and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, an ...

and

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

. One popular sideline act was his accordion duo with fellow Last and Kaempfert bandmate

Günter Platzek Günter Platzek (18 July 1930 in Hanover, Germany – 29 November 1990 in Hamburg, Germany) was a German keyboard player. He became known for his longtime work with the James Last Orchestra, of which he was a member from 1965 up until his death ...

, known as

The Pop Kids "The Pop Kids" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys from their thirteenth studio album, ''Super'' (2016). It was released on 16 February 2016 as the album's lead single. Release "The Pop Kids" was made available alongside the pre-or ...

. Now retired, Ende took part in the 80th anniversary celebration of the birth of

in 2003.Bob Willox, "James Last", 1975; James Last Appreciation Society magazine, May 1976

References

1929 births Living people Musicians from Hamburg German male musicians {{Germany-musician-stub