Swan [Extra tracks, Import]

Bob James | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 16, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import
• Label: Jvc Japan
• ASIN: B0002CHPCC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,878,594 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Swan

2. Delaissado

3. Prospero

4. Water Music

5. Ensenda Madness

6. Quietly Crazy For You

7. San Antonio

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply amazing!, February 1, 2010

By 

E. Williams (Wellington , New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Swan (Audio CD)

I have been a Bob James fan for very long and I try not to have favourite Bob James albums. However, if I have to choose it has to be between "The Swan" and "Grand Piano Canyon". I bought The Swan in 1984 (in South Africa - it must have been released there simultaneously as the Japanese edition) as I did with all my Bob James music: walk into the record store, take the new BJ album off the shelve, pay and walk out. I used to sit down at home and listen quietly in my armchair. I remember my delight listening to it for the first time as if it was yesterday. The Swan, La Delaissade, Quietly Crazy for You and Watermusic are performed superbly.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Swan is amazing!, May 31, 2006

By 

Frenz (Zeist,Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Swan (Audio CD)

Probably the best smooth jazz CD from BJ. The Swan is my all-time favourite track, i can listen to this song forever, absolute masterpiece. La Delaissado,Prospero and Quietly Crazy For You, although heavily jazzed up with somehow messy improvisations from Peter Erskine on drums have the same "New Age" synths that makes the Swan so extra loveable, but the Swan is more organized.

5.0 out of 5 stars SWAN Dive, October 7, 2011

By 

Erik North (San Gabriel, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Swan (Audio CD)

It's tempting at times to call what is known in most circles as "smooth jazz" as nothing more than modern glorified Muzak. It's tempting, but I wouldn't. And much of this style has been around for more than four decades now. One of the masters in this form has been keyboardist and arranger Bob James.

Dating all the way back to the mid-1960s, though the bulk of his output really started with his 1974 album ONE, James has proven to be one of the best exponents of this admittedly relaxing but often engaging form. Such is the case with his 1984 album THE SWAN. As has been the case with so much of what he has done, the arrangements are often lush, sometimes fairly dramatic in their own way, and always eminently listenable. And as has also been the case with several of his albums, he also cagily adapts some works from the classical realm. The title track, for instance, is a beautiful rendition of a movement from the famous piano-cum-orchestral suite "The Carnival Of The Animals" by the French composer Camille Saint-Saens; "La Delaissado" is adapted from the very ancient song collection "Haute-Auvergene"; and "Water Music" adapts the Minuet from the F Major suite of George Frideric Handel's Baroque-era masterpiece collection of that same name. The three other tracks--"Prospero"; "Ensenada Madness"; and "Quietly Crazy For You"--are originals, with musical palettes ranging from Shakespeare-inspired impressionism ("Prospero" being inspired by the Bard's "The Tempest"), to Latin jazz.

Nobody who has a taste for this style of music, however "unhip" it may be to others, should miss catching an audio glimpse of THE SWAN.