FunkFreak75 Klaus Doldinger's first release using the "Passport" moniker. Unfortunately, he would have to come up with a whole new lineup of musicians in order to produce his next album.

1. "Uranus" (6:35) with the use of weird synthesizer sounds and multiple "chorus" saxophones in the lead, this one sounds futuristic--like something that would influence the next/new generation of German prog rockers (ELOY and ANYONE'S DAUGHTER are what immediately come to mind). Though I like the flutes as a complement to the rest of the sounds in the second motif, it's Udo Lindenberg's drumming that really holds my attention the most--that and the intriguing sound choices coming from Jimmy Jackson and Klaus Doldinger's keyboards. (8.75/10)

2. "Shirokko" (5:44) opening with Klaus's solo saxophone being fed through some delay, echo, and panning effects for a 55-second intro before the drummer and bass player breaks into a groovy 1960s jazzed (or funked)-up surfer music motif. Clavinet-like keyboard provides the R&B guitar-like rhythm play while multiple saxophones provide horn-section-like background fill. Some of Klaus and Olaf Kübler's saxes solo over the top as well as Jimmy Jackson's organ in the third and fourth. Excellent! The really superstar (besides Udo's smooth/relaxed drumming) is Lothar Meid's chill bass play. A top three song for me--probably my favorite. (9.125/10)

3. "Hexensabbat" (4:27) using the heavy organ and "clavinet" sound from The Court of the Crimson King and driving Hammond and saxophone makes this song a very welcome proggy-side of the "new" jazz-rock fusion medium. Klaus's saxophone play leans far more to the sounds we've been hearing for a few months from Britain's VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR. Another top three song. (9/10)

4. "Nostalgia" (5:13) taking his cues from the great WAYNE SHORTER, Klaus has got to be one of the other first/early users of sound engineering effects on his saxophones. Nice, evenly-paced low key song.(8.75/10)

5. "Lemuria's dance" (4:37) and Klaus's pioneering way of using multiple saxophones to create his DON ELLIS-like wall of strings- and/or horn section-like back texture has also got to be pretty innovative (as well as perhaps nodding back to his big band days). Drummer Udo Lindenberg again impresses: big time! (8.875/10)

6. "Continuation" (9:53) a song that starts out with a spacey bucolic motif that develops very slowly and deliberately within its atmospheric spaciousness before the band winds up in the second half ramping things up to another VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR level of power: even going so far as to use similar sound palette and odd chord progressions. (17.5/20)

7. "Madhouse jam" (5:47) early MIROSLAV VITOUS/HERBIE HANCOCK/LARRY CORYELL-like funk using a rather simple bass and chord progression to define the rhythm track while adding some rock-like instruments like rhythm guitar and breathy flute; the whole foundation is just too blues-rock simplistic. Even WAR or BRIAN AUGER are more sophisticated and multi-directional than this. (8.5/10)

Total Time: 42:16

B/four stars; an excellent representative of the directions of possibilities in early Jazz-Rock Fusion.

Miler72 This was the beginning of Klaus Doldinger's long running Passport, and it's a very different lineup to the 1973-1977 lineup that produced all the albums from Looking Thru up to Iguacu. Here he included Jimmy Jackson, Lothar Meid, Udo Lindenberg, and Olaf Kubler. Lothar Meid replaced Dave Anderson in Amon Duul II, and Jimmy Jackson had played on several Amon Duul II albums including Tanz der Lemminge and Wolf City, plus Embryo's Rache and Steig Aus, and even (uncredited) Tangerine Dream's Electronic Meditation. So you might think this might be more Krautrock with Doldinger's sax playing? No, it sounds very much like Passport, even this early on. This might be a bit more jazz-rock than full-on fusion, as organ, rather than electric piano more dominated. But it's a fantastic debut. "Uranus" features a bit of synthesizer and even a little Mellotron (no one is credited to it, so I probably think it was Jimmy Jackson as he used one on Embryo's Rache and Steig Aus, although it could be Doldinger himself, although he wouldn't be credited to one until Hand Made). "Nostalgia" is another great piece in the Passport style, with strange faint choir-like sounds, probably from the mysterious "choir organ" from Jimmy Jackson that was also featured on Amon Duul II's Tanz der Lemminge and Wolf City, as well as Popol Vuh's Aguirre (and probably In den Garten Pharoahs, although I don't believe Jimmy plays on those Popol Vuh albums, I'm sure it was his machine). "Continuation" is a favorite of mine, with that wah-wah effect and clavinet done in a trippy psychedelic nature until they get into the more typical Passport style, with Doldinger's sax playing.

Let me tell you if you enjoy all the albums they did from Looking Thru to Infinity Machine, you will want to try their pre-Looking Thru material, as they're all worth getting, and this is a great example!

seyo PASSPORT has been unjustly overlooked when talking about classic fusion style of the early seventies' music. Their debut album is however one of the better works of the genre.

Loaded with processed saxophones and flutes (sometimes similar in sound to VDGG's David Jaxon), stomping rhythm section and psyche/space passages of electric piano, organ and synthesizers, it is a very nice and enjoyable record. This line-up even features a Krautrock connection in Olaf Kuebler and Lothar Meid, once alumni of AMON DUUL II commune.

Beautiful melodies intermingle with fiery sax-laden heavy arrangements in the Crimsonesque style. This is not a light, easy first listen crossover, but a more experimental type of fusion. "Passport-Doldinger" should be considered as one of the better fusion albums together with other champions of the genre (Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report...).

Warthur The first Passport album is a hidden gem of the early fusion scene, which deserves to be considered along with the debuts of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report in considerations of the genre's evolution. Although at points the band do play loud, hard, and fast - as on Lemuria's Dance and Madhouse Jam, the former of which seems to me to show a bit of influence from the sound achieved by Frank Zappa on Hot Rats. But by and large, the music here is a touch more gentle than the competition, with a spacey atmosphere often attained by bandleader Klaus Doldinger through his embrace of modern synthesisers, an innovation which sets the album apart from most other fusion albums from the same year. A great start to an extremely prolific project.