Track Listing

1. Crescent - John Coltrane, John Coltrane
2. Wise One
3. Bessie's Blues
4. Lonnie's Lament
5. Drum Thing

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97489 in Music
• Brand: COLTRANE,JOHN
• Released on: 1996-09-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
John Coltrane, Crescent

Customer Reviews

Underrated but perhaps his best
I first heard a Coltrane recording in 1971 and have never stopped listening nor collecting his music. In his large, distinguished, and influential discography, "Crescent," in my mind, stands out as his most completely satisfying recording.

Critics and listeners who focus exclusively on Trane's famous "sheets of sound" approach, his forays into long, modal improvisations, such as on "Chasin' the Trane" and the volcanic fury of his late work do him a disservice. He was and remains one of jazz's most lyrical players and "Crescent," originally released in 1964, displays that lyricism in its most lovely and passionate forms.

The beautiful melodicism is displayed most affectingly on "Wise One" and on "Lonnie's Lament." The title cut contains a tour-de-force solo that shows just how much drama a master player can achieve in the space of four or five minutes of improvisation. "Bessie's Blues" is an exciting straight-ahead attack, and the "Drum Thing" showcases Elvin Jones' great talent and connection with Trane's music.

Seldom do albums achieve such coherency of form, and the credit for this goes not only to Trane (who composed all the tunes), but to the rest of the great quartet. McCoy Tyner has a wonderful shimmering solo on "Wise One," and Jimmy Garrison contributes a fine bass statement on "Lonnie's Lament."

Great choice for the listener who is interested in exploring Coltrane's career or for the jazz fan who is search of 40 minutes of unadulterated pleasure.

Beauty. Melancholy. Serenity.
Sandwiched between two of the John Coltrane Quartet's greatest masterpieces -- Live at Birdland and A Love Supreme -- Crescent is often forgotten. But this album of four ballads and one blues is full of understated beauty. "Crescent", "The Wise One" and "Lonnie's Lament" are three of the Coltrane's most beautiful compositions; these are some of the first ballads in the later Coltrane style, with the saxophone playing the theme in free time over the rumbling rhythm section. (There's a great 50 minute performance of "Crescent" on Live in Japan, but that's not for everyone.) The mood on this recording is similar to that on Ballads but Coltrane cuts loose a bit more. His playing can get intense at times, but it doesn't have the shrieks and screams which pop up on A Love Supreme and later albums. "The Drum Thing" is basically an excellent Elvin Jones solo, with Jimmy Garrison's bass providing forward motion and Trane's saxophone wrapping around the rhythm section. If you liked A Love Supreme, this is an excellent choice for your next Coltrane album.

Sea Of Tranquility
Collecting John Coltrane is a challenge; he was prolific, constantly evolving, and seemed to live in a recording studio. Even so, certain landmark efforts have achieved "essential" status, for a variety of reasons. I would agree that A Love Supreme, My Favorite Things, Ascension, African Brass, Giant Steps, and the Johnny Hartman collaboration all fall into this category. Crescent does too, and I'm not certain why it is so frequently overlooked.

Like A Love Supreme, Crescent is an integrated whole, not a mere collection of "tracks." The entire effort casts a very particular spell. Maybe critics don't embrace it because it doesn't feature the trademark "sheets of sound" for which Coltrane was known, something akin to blowing the cold off of ice. The allure of Crescent is much more subtle than that.

Each selection, even the straight-ahead Bessie's Blues, aches with haunting, spiritual elegance. The solos, which do occasionally soar, never lose sight of the ground and resolve back into their themes in deeply satisfying ways. Coltrane's tone, always amazing, is especially lush and round here, almost opulent. Even at its wiggliest you're unlikely to turn down the sound, this CD wants to soothe you, not nail you to the wall.

The opening bars of the title track tell you exactly where you're about to go, straight into the sad and beautiful heart of truth. Wise One takes listeners through the entire emotional cycle, fragile longing, seeking that reaches up, reconciliation. Perfection. McCoy Tyner shines throughout on piano, especially on Lonnie's Lament, a tune lovely enough to put tears in the eyes of a serial killer. Drum Thing finds Elvin Jones conjuring up a sort of hypnotic trance; the interplay between him and Coltrane provides a transcendent conclusion to a CD of exquisite beauty.

In many ways it's unfortunate that Coltrane's reputation rests on the idea of destroying music in order to reinvent it. Listening to Crescent provides ample evidence that, in addition to being a profoundly spiritual man, Coltrane was as lyrical a player as has ever unpacked a horn.