James Last – Voodoo-Party

Voodoo-Party is a singalong Funk Exotica critter by the world-famous bandleader, arranger and songwriter James Last (1929-2015), released in 1971 on Polydor Records at a time when the hippie movement belatedly reached German shores. Now it has really come to this: I am reviewing a James Last LP! But the reasons the Hamburg-based leader gives with this work are good and justifiable. While all of his albums with the term Party in their title altogether draw from hippiedom, unleash quirky lyrics and are draped in a cheesy aura of togetherness and comradeship – not to mention the various bonfire and camping allusions – Voodoo-Party is quite a bit better than its brethren. Not only are there two instrumentals on board, no, the majority of the remaining ten tracks is good enough. Even though the choir might spoil a few of the arrangements, the euphony of the interplay and interdependence is tastefully concocted.

Bass guitars and electric guitars boost the funkiness further, so much so that Voodoo-Party could be seen as the rightful predecessor of Geoff Love’s and Norman Newell‘s Mandingo project, a group of session musicians who took the Afro-Bop movement as the base and ennobled it with Funk and Exotica ingredients from 1972–1975. James Last’s album is tamer and less sanguine in comparison, but a few sections cannot only compete with Mandingo, they occasionally outshine the British fellows’ visions due to the catchiness of the brass prongs. Voodoo-Party may be much lighter, easier on the ears and as colorful as the druggy front artwork, but it is certainly comparable. Read more about the dobs and duds below and which lively compositions today’s Exotica listeners never knew but should not miss.