Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation - Have You Seen Passport Live?

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Have You Seen Passport Live?

Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific prog bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=99914
Printed Date: May 01 2024 at 14:07
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Topic: Have You Seen Passport Live?

Posted By: presdoug
Subject: Have You Seen Passport Live?
Date Posted: October 05 2014 at 14:08

I greatly admire jazz/jazz rock group Passport, but have never seen them live. Are there PA members that have, and that could share what the experience was like? It would be especially cool to hear about them in the seventies! Don't think they have ever played my native Canada (I could be mistaken)

Replies:

Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: October 05 2014 at 21:16

Never saw them live. Amazing band! Curt Cress was my favorite drummer for Passport. I believe the band went through 2 drummers before finding Cress. When they played in Philadelphia during the 70's....I completely missed out on the whole event because I was traveling.

Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: October 06 2014 at 06:38

^yeah, Curt Cress is amazing. The first two drummers were Udo Lindenberg and Bryan Spring, who great, too. That's interesting that they played Philadelphia. I know that Passport were Stateside in 1973 and 1979, though there could have been other times.

Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: October 06 2014 at 09:02

After Infinity Machine...I was curious to check out their later releases. I was informed by Progheads to not waste my time. They claimed most of what the band wrote/recorded after Infinity Machine was like "lounge music" for dancing. I still haven't looked into it. Is it that way?

Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: October 06 2014 at 12:06

TODDLER wrote:

After Infinity Machine...I was curious to check out their later releases. I was informed by Progheads to not waste my time. They claimed most of what the band wrote/recorded after Infinity Machine was like "lounge music" for dancing. I still haven't looked into it. Is it that way?

I've heard the same thing said in essence, and it is a rather extreme,harsh and unfair thing to say about the band. The album Iguacu, the one after Infinity Machine, experiments with "world music", but still has the dynamics and sense of style that I find appealing. The resultant Sky Blue and Garden Of Eden records (1978 and 1979 respectively) are a bit more laid back than early Passport, but cannot be dismissed as "lounge music". There is a great live boot out there from New York in '79 featuring music from these three records, and it is simply electrifying! Passport still had the chops.
1980's Ocean Liner is the most laid back approach I've come across (admittedly the closest to "lounge music"), and I have never heard '81's Blue Tattoo, but Earthborn and Man In The Mirror, 1982 and 1983 respectively, are quite engaging and involving records, not to be dismissed either-both exhibit some very tasteful playing.
There is little after these recordings that I have heard, so cannot venture a real opinion on them.

Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: July 03 2015 at 19:11

Just saw reference to a USA tour Passport did from April 7-29th, 1975 in support of their new release "Cross Collateral".

Oh, to have a time machine!