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Monday, February 6, 2012

Tip I'll Give You a Break, Pt. 37: Passport's "Ju-Ju-Man"

Posted by Dave Segal on Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 10:15 AM

[I’ll Give You a Break is a sporadic series of posts highlighting obscure (and not so obscure) breakbeats in unlikely places, so that they may be sampled by producers or just enjoyed for their own geeky purposes. NB: Don’t forget to clear all samples through the proper channels (cough).]

“Ju-Ju-Man” off Passport’s 1976 LP Infinity Machine offers at least a few passages ripe for sampling gold. The first 47 seconds or so sounds like Herbie Hancock ca. 1973 fused with Weather Report ca. 1976, with the first 11 seconds giving you damn near ideal, midtempo head-nod funk. Then the stretch from 2:00 to about 3:30 delivers a righteous drums/FX’d sax/clavinet dialogue, like some impossibly cosmopolitan, alternate-world version of Quincy Jones’ Sanford & Son theme, "The Streetbeater." And if you fast-forward to 4:56 - 5:46, Passport drummer Curt Cress lays down some understated Caribbean funk augmented by odd percussion-toy sproings and tinkles. The 10-minute “Ju-Ju-Man” is absurdly generous with the sampling fodder. Passport leader Klaus Doldinger was a real Santa right here.