PASSPORT

Latin influences were very subtle on the Infinite Machine and came to prominence on Iguacu. The album features some catchy and very memorable songs. I don't agree that there are no fusion moments present here, just listen to the title track and there is plenty to explore. The main issue was a significant drop in the ability to experiment and try harder. The songs are mostly well structured and composed but there is not much space to stretch and show the chops. The guest musicians are competent too - the change of the sound is not necessarily bad but for a regular progger, not much is left to be pleased with after repeated listens. Therefore two stars only.

This album is one of the highest rated Passport albums and for a good reason. The musicians are top notch, the compositions are of good quality even though not essential. The first two tracks are more adventurous and in a clear fusion spirit, the second half of the album is not so strong and leaves something to stay memorable. I like the mellow last track. The instruments are balanced, the saxophone leaves space for others to shine out. Mellotron and Moog add to the cozy atmosphere. Overall a really good album but non-essential for a progger and the same holds for a fusion/jazz-rock specialist. 3 stars well deserved!

Passport Iguacu By Ron Tagliapietra Iguacu is the 7th studio album by Passport. I consider it their best. It includes Latin influence in the song titles (some Brazilian places) and the use of percussion instruments (from Brazil). "Bahia do Sol", the first track, is very upbeat and catchy. Two other tracks are also fast and energetic: "Sambukada" and "Guna Guna". All 3 of these tracks are great and obviously liked by the band, too, since they're all on their live album Lifelike . In fact, the first 2 of the songs are also on their compilation album Spirit of Continuity: the Passport Anthology . None of the 8 tracks are bad, but "Praia Lame" and "Aguamarinha" are fantastic and exude energy.

For the album Iguacu, the line-up consisted of Kurt Doldinger (saxes, flute, organ, synthesizer [Moog]), Curt Cress (drums, berimbau), Wolfgang Schmid (bass), Roy Louis (guitar) and Elmer Louis (percussion). There are also 7 guest musicians: Mat Bjorklund (guitar) played only on "Guna Guna", while the other 6 guys (Wilson Das Neves, Roberto Bastos Pinheiro, Noel Manuel Pinto, Clelio Ribeiro, Marcello Salazar, Pedro Santos) played various Brazilian percussion instruments on "Sambukada" (and 2 of them, Pinto and Santos, also played on "Bird of Paradise"). Percussion instruments included atapaques, berimbau, cuica, pandeiro, & surdo.

The album's title and cover should not be ignored. The cover is an upside-down photo of Iguacu, a waterfall on the Iguacu River, forming the border between Brazil and Argentina. The river empties into the Rio Parana at the Paraguayan border not far downstream. During the dry season, it pales in comparison to Niagara Falls, however during the rainy season, it has 10 times as much water flowing over it as Niagara Falls. This makes it the most powerful waterfall in the world! It's a fitting commentary for the powerful energy of Passport's music! Why is it upside down? It's your Passport into jazz-fusion!

The relentless journey of the band named Passport continues at the fall of 1973.Doldinger would carry the band to Dieter Dierks's Studio in October to record ''Looking thru'', this time Frank Roberts was replaced by keyboardist Kristian Schultze, who was already an experienced performer, having played with his own band Kristian Schultze Set and the Ethno-Jazz combo Niagara, while he was a close friend of Curt Cress, playing later alongside the German veteran drummer in Curt Cress Clan and Snowball.

''Looking thru'' shows Passport returning to the sound of their inventive pair of first releases, without throwing away the new direction they had taken with ''Hand made''.In fact this one sounds the most Kraut Fusion album of the combo, regarding the displayed stylings, featuring spacious keyboards, light jazzy improvisations, funky rhythms, Fusion exercises and a nice dose of Kraut Rock freakness.Some superb jazzy grooves with nice work on clavinet and sax to go along with tremendous Fusion keyboard and piano fests, love the combination of jazzy electric piano with the sinister Mellotron strings in the background.The opening side relies much on the work of Doldinger and Schultze on keyboards and the tireless rhythm section with occasional sax bursts, it's one of the very fine examples of flexible German Fusion with charming keyboard soloing and balanced tempos.Second side sees Doldinger pickin' up his sax for some accomplished executions on funky lines, melodious themes and scratching jazzy workouts, always backed up by the omnipresent keyboards.It sounds a bit more ethereal and lightweight than the opening one, but still contains some pretty cool stuff with experimental synth lines and virtuosic piano solos.My main complaint comes from the album's length, this one is pretty short, barely exceeding the 30-min. mark.

Well-played German Fusion with a variety of rhythms and atmospheres.Better than ''Hand made'' and a major purchase for all fans of airy Kraut/Jazz Rock.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

Passport, fronted by multi-instrumentalist Klaus Doldinger, is truly an amazing outfit. Especially in the 1970s and early 1980s, the band recorded album after album of top notch jazz/jazz-rock music. Apart from the justifiably tried and true studio and 2 live records on Atlantic in the 70s, there were some rather off the beaten track live outings that deserve a lot more attention than they have garnered. This double CD set called "Lifelike", is one of them.

Recorded after the famous and renowned group lineup of Doldinger on Sax and Keys, Curt Cress on drums, Kristian Schultze (RIP) on keys, and Wolfgang Schmid on Guitar had disbanded, this recording features live performances from the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival (introduced by Claude Nobs) and the 1980 Montreux Festival, as well. Though Doldinger would never fully recapture the greatness of the earlier lineup (whose last recording was the studio album Iguacu in 1977), the music on this CD set shows that he still knew how to surround himself with great musicians, and make great music. Judging by the evidence on these recordings, Passport still had the chops live, and had not run out of steam, as some thought they had.

CD 1 has the lineup of Doldinger along with Kevin Mulligan on guitar, Hendrik Schaper on keys, Dieter Petereit on bass, and Dave Crigger on drums, who were also involved in some of Passport's post-Iguacu studio offerings. In Montreux in 1977, this band is still a force to be reckoned with, doing numbers from the recently released Iguacu album, as well older tracks from the debut, Second Passport, and Infinity Machine. The last two tracks are recorded without bass and drums, with a somewhat different from Passport atmosphere to them. Though the music here is a little lighter than the early band, none of it is trite, and stands on it's own as intriguing music.

CD 2 starts off with a cover of 1975's Jadoo, then a number from Iguacu, and a version of Stormy Monday Blues, all done in 1977 as well, with guest musicians. Then comes Montreux 1980, and the title track from Ataraxia, and then Dreamware and Algeria, these tracks featuring the 1977 Montreux lineup. Algeria features a very creative drum solo from David Crigger.

If you are a fan of seventies Passport, I urge you to give Lifelike a try. It is definitely worthwhile, and is an important window on what the band was like live in the first few years after the Iguacu lineup departed. I give it four stars.

Underrated late '70s Passport album, this album found the group with a complete overhaul of their lineup. Gone are Curt Cross, Kristian Schultze and Wolfgang Schmid, with a whole new lineup. Passport has always been Klaus Doldinger's vehicle to begin with, as the first album, Doldinger from 1971 featured a lineup that's completely different from the lineup that gave up Looking Thru up to Iguacu (except for Doldinger, naturally), so this isn't the first time Passport had a complete overhaul of their lineup. Gone is much of the Brazilian style of Iguacu, except for that last cut, "Alegria", instead you get some of that mid '70s Passport style, with a spacy electronic backdrop, and two cuts, "Sky Blue" and "Loco-Motive" bearing more than a passing resemblance to instrumental Alan Parsons Project. I happened to like the direction Passport was heading here. I am particularly fond of the electronic direction they were heading here. "Mandrake", on the other hand is more typical Passport, with that unmistakable sax playing from Klaus Doldinger. This song gets me thinking of a TV game show theme song. I have always been under the impression Doldinger was of two minds, he wanted mainstream acceptance, at the same time he had creative ambitions. Had he not had those ambitions, he could have scarily ended up as the Kenny G of the 1970s. There's at times Passport did border on smooth jazz, and that is most noticeable on "Louisiana". Then there's "Reng Ding Dang Dong". This one just utterly blew me away. Probably the most original piece of music I have ever heard from Passport (a band never known for originality). This is an electronic piece, done really funky of synthesizers. I really love this piece, I can't believe this is really Passport. While Passport in general might not be of interest to lovers of progressive electronic, "Reng Ding Dang Dong" sure does, as it's firmly in that camp! This album is not perfect, "Alegria" is Brazilian-influenced jazz I can do without (seems everyone agrees), and is probably the reason I've been hesitant to get Iguacu. Call me crazy, I found Ataraxia (Sky Blue) more enjoyable than Infinity Machine. Of course Cross Collateral is by far the best Passport album, as far as I'm concerned, but I was really surprised with this album, given if you go by this website, Infinity Machine is their last worthwhile album. For me, it's Ataraxia. Not everything is great here, but I enjoyed it much more than I imagined.

In a creative orgasm Passport's third actual album became reality in 1973.This time there is no John Mealing or Bryan Spring around, instead Doldinger invited German veteran drummer Curt Cress, while a young keyboardist named Frank Roberts, who had just released a single on Atlantic, would join the rest of the team on electric piano and organ.No surprise, he would later become a member of Isotope.This work would again be released on Atlantic, entitled ''Hand made''.

To my ears ''Hand made'' sounds closer to traditional Jazz-Rock that the first two Passport offerings, that means the band delivers a more loose and even more energetic style, which is a nice thing, but fails a bit in terms of consistency, like during the useless drum/bass monologue on ''The connexion''.Moreover Doldinger would sacrifice some of the previous incredible spaciness in the name of funkier and upbeat tunes.Still there are plenty of good moments to find in the album.Wolfgang Schmid's throbbing bass lines have finally become a trademark of the group, the same occurs for Doldinger's long and melodic sax solos.Doldinger along with Roberts are also responsible for Passport's impressive keyboard-driven depth on this release, which includes COLOSSEUM-like organ moves, soaring synthesizers, nervous electric piano and additionally some clavinet on ''Proclamation'' (no connection with Gentle Giant's self-titled track from ''The power and the glory'', even if there is where the clavinet appears).As with every Passport album, there is a good bunch of synth fanfares and organ runs with Doldinger keeping a great balance between sax-driven soundscapes and other instrumental parts, bassed on groovy moves, jazzy free-stylings and a tight prog content.

''Hand made'' appears to be slightly less experimental and daring compared to Passport's strong early steps.But this does not mean it is not a good album.It still is a good Fusion creation by Doldinger & co. with nice organ/synth work, impressive electric piano and a dominant sax flavor.Recommended.

It's quite impressive knowing Passport as they were very productive in generating albums and this "Running in Real Time" was their 14th studio album since their first inception in 1971. Many have considered this Germany-based band in comparison with its American counterpart Weather Report eventhough the music is not quite the same. This release is quite surprise to me as it features two kind of music: the original root of Passport with its jazz-rock fusion style with many saxophone work and those with vocals where the music tend to be R&B instead of jazz.

The opening track "At Large" demonstrates the original root of Passport in jazz-rock fusion style featuring sax solo combined nicely with guitar work laid over jazzy rhythm section. The next track "Auyrin" is a slow speed jazzy tunes with sax as main melody backed with solid basslines. There is also nice guitar solo right after sax. These two opening tracks resembles the original style of Passport music. "Talisman" is explorative in nature, demonstrating bamboo flute played by the band leader Klaus Doldinger cmbined nicely with vocals as well as excellent percussion by the band's long serving drummer: Curt Cress. Starting with "Help Me" Passport made an effort to do differently, introducing vocal by Victoria Miles. The music has the kind of R&B style. But of course it's not a typical R&B you can hear easily at radio station. It's in fact quite enjoyable.

Overall, I consider this album is a good one especially for those who love jazz-rock fusion but don't get surprises if you find some kind of R&B music as the vocal enters. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Have no fun, dude, unless you like to play and have fun pressing the "skip" button. I found Passport - Garden of Eden, used and cheap. I never had tried any Passport album before, so... why not? The album cover is fine and looking at the tracklist, the Garden of Eden was an eight minutes suite, it took my interest. But I am so sorry. It couldn't be worst. It was a cheesy, easy- listening and non-memorable soft/jazz-pop. Nothing catchy, nothing creative. Big Bang doesn't made me happy, and the suite... what a boring track. The rest of the album? Just few new-age pop and poor stuff. Please, try their early stuff.

The last good album before drastic change in direction.

Passport is Klaus Doldinger's vehicle. An extremely productive composer, performer, the band allows for some stretching out alongside his other works for German TV, where he provided countless soundtracks for noted TV-series, as well as movies. Some of those works are equally good compared with Passport and it's of a surprise to me that Doldinger didn't merit a separate listing on PA.

I was fortunate to catch the band live on their promotion tour of "Ataraxia". The performance was studded with great improvisations on all instruments and this album contains elements of that - albeit in a condensed form.

The first half of the album is a pure delight. The two-part title tune slowly builds from a tastefully mellow start to a gutsy finish, then followed by a number of excellent pieces. It's European Jazz- Rock at it's best.

What follows is a bit of a mixed bag of goodies. Still some nice compositions/melodies professionally arranged and delivered. The emergence of the odd Disco rhythm though - whilst not that horrible - points in the direction Passport were heading towards on their future releases.

The band is like a revolving door where members come and go regularly. This line-up is one of the best and able to deliver fluid and smooth works, unlike some awkwardly fragmented and rigid lines that tend to plague many Teutonic artists.

Altogether, the album remains a worthy addition and recommended. Most other works by Passport pre-Ataraxia are also excellent