Reissue and first U.S. release of the German jazz-fusion groups 1977
album that made the Billboard top LP charts. The leader of Passport,
Klaus Doldinger worked with Donald Byrd and Kenny Clarke early in his
career. Standard jewel case. 2001 release.
Something strange happened when Passport went to Rio de Janeiro to cut
the Iguacu album — they seemed to forget the entire basis for
their previous success. The trademark Klaus Doldinger sax sound is
muted and diluted by the attempt to fit the band into a Brazilian jazz
mold, and the result sounds eerily like a pretty good lounge jazz band
trying to sound like Passport. The long, liquid melody lines are gone,
replaced by up-tempo but unmemorable frameworks for full-band jams.
Guitarist Roy Louis plays an unusually large part, Doldinger an
unusually small one, and the tracks with the local Brazilian musicians
are energetic but unfocused. This is one of the least compelling
Passport albums, one without a single tune that stays in your head long
after you hear it.