PASSPORT - DOLDINGER

Parts of this album would get 3 stars, other parts would get 5. A pretty mixed album, but then, I've been told I'm picky, so others may be more forgiving. That said, the essential songs are Hexensabbat, Nostalgia, Lemuria's dance, and Continuation. Hexensabbat just plain rocks with a nice, dark melody tenor sax. Nostalgia is a very beautiful ballad with nice flute from Olaf Kubler, and Lemuria's Dance has one of the better intros I've ever heard with another great melody. Continuation is a little difficult to rate, because I don't care much for most of the song. The intro is very nice but not great, and the middle section kind of drags on. However, Doldinger's sax solo at the end is absolutely gorgeous. I do not exaggerate. His solo in this song is nearly enough for me to recommend this album... but not quite. Fortunately, there's well enough here to boost it with the rest of the songs being only good, with Shirokko being the best of them.