Crescent (John Coltrane album)
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (positive)[2] |
| The Village Voice | (positive)[3] |
Crescent is a 1964 studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane, released by Impulse! as A-66. It features his jazz quartet group of McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones playing all original Coltrane compositions, with the leader playing tenor saxophone exclusively. It is commonly regarded as the saxophonist's darkest album. Only the brief, infectious medium-up "Bessie's Blues", and a samba-tinged groove in the midsection of the otherwise sedate "Wise One", break the sombre mood.
Recording and production
The quartet went into Rudy Van Gelder Studio on April 27, 1964, and performed all five of the songs on this album as well as a short version of "Song of Praise"—which would be recut in May of that year and compiled on The John Coltrane Quartet Plays. They returned to the studio on June 1, 1965, and recorded versions of the title track and "Bessie's Blues" which ended up on the album. The three rejected recordings from April 27 are lost.[4]
The music represents Coltrane's return to meticulous form and structure, and post-bop modality, after several years of free-form experimentation alternating with traditional balladeering. The album's closing track is an improvisational feature for Jones' drums (with spare melodic accompaniment from Coltrane's tenor sax and Garrison's bass at the song's beginning and end): Coltrane would continue to explore drum/saxophone conversations both in live performances with this group and on subsequent recordings such as the posthumously-released Interstellar Space (with Rashied Ali.) Furthermore, Coltrane does not solo at all on side two of the original LP; the ballad "Lonnie's Lament" instead features a long bass solo by Garrison.
The album's liner notes are written by Nat Hentoff and the original LP's inner gatefold profile photograph of Coltrane is the same one which would be featured on the cover of Coltrane's next Impulse! album release, A Love Supreme.
Legacy
An earlier version of "Lonnie's Lament" appears on Afro-Blue Impressions and an almost hour-long version of "Crescent" would later be recorded on Live in Japan. The entire album would be collected on The Classic Quartet: The Complete Impulse! Recordings. Coltrane would later perform the song "After the Crescent", which appeared on 1965's To the Beat of a Different Drum.
The title track would later be covered by Alice Coltrane for 2004's Translinear Light and McCoy Tyner on his 1991 album Soliloquy. Tyner recorded it again live for the albums McCoy Tyner Plays John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard and Live at Sweet Basil.
Garrison's widow recalled that this album along with A Love Supreme were the two he listened to the most.[5]
Track listing
All songs composed by John Coltrane and published by Jowcol Music (BMI)
- Side one
- "Crescent" – 8:41
- "Wise One" – 9:00
- "Bessie's Blues" – 3:22
- Side two
- "Lonnie's Lament" – 11:45
- "The Drum Thing" – 7:22
Personnel
- John Coltrane Quartet
- John Coltrane – band leader and tenor saxophone
- Jimmy Garrison – double bass
- Elvin Jones – drums
- McCoy Tyner – piano
- Technical personnel
- Compact Disc release
- Joe Alper – photography
- Michael Cuscuna – liner notes and production
- Eric Labson – remastering
- Chuck Stewart – photography
References
- Kahn, Ashley (October 27, 2002), A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album (Hardback) (in English) (1st ed.), United States: Viking Press, ISBN 0-0670-03136-4, OCLC 50285271
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- ^ Michael G. Nastos. "Crescent Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
- ^ Tony Scherman (1998-12-26). "John Coltrane Quartet The Classic Quartet-Complete Impulse Studio Recordings". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Frances Davis (2006-05-30). "The John Coltrane Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Liner notes to the Compact Disc release.
- ^ Kahn, p. 222