Crescent (John Coltrane album)

1964 studio album by John Coltrane

Crescent

Studio album by

John Coltrane

Released| July 1964[1]
Recorded| April 27 and June 1, 1964
Studio| Van Gelder (Englewood Cliffs)
Genre| Avant-garde jazz, post-bop, modal jazz
Length| 40:10
Label| Impulse! A-66
Producer| Bob Thiele
John Coltrane chronology
| Coltrane's Sound
(1964)  | Crescent
(1964)  | A Love Supreme
(1965)

|
|

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [2]
Entertainment Weekly| (positive)[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz| [4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide| [6]
The Village Voice| (positive)[5]

Crescent is a studio album by the jazz musician and composer John Coltrane. It was released in July 1964 through the label Impulse!. Alongside Coltrane on tenor saxophone, the album features McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (double bass) and Elvin Jones (drums) playing original Coltrane compositions.

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 closing track is an improvisational feature for Jones (with sparse melodic accompaniment from Coltrane's tenor sax and Garrison's bass at the song's beginning and end): Coltrane continued to explore drum/saxophone duets in live performances with this group and on subsequent recordings such as the posthumously released Interstellar Space (with Rashied Ali).

## Legacy

[edit]

An earlier version of "Lonnie's Lament" appears on Afro-Blue Impressions, and an almost hour-long version of "Crescent" was recorded on Live in Japan. The entire album was collected on The Classic Quartet: The Complete Impulse! Recordings. Coltrane later recorded the song "After the Crescent", which appeared on 1978's To the Beat of a Different Drum.

The title track was later 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. Guitarist Steve Lukather is the soloist on the version recorded for the 2005 tribute album A Guitar Supreme.[7] The SFJAZZ Collective covered four of the songs on their SFJAZZ Collective 2, with Nicholas Payton and Joshua Redman soloing on the title track.[8]

Garrison's widow recalled that this album along with A Love Supreme were the two he listened to the most.[9]

## Track listing

[edit]

All songs composed by John Coltrane and published by Jowcol Music (BMI)

Side one

1. "Crescent" – 8:41
2. "Wise One" – 9:00
3. "Bessie's Blues" – 3:22

Side two

1.   2. "Lonnie's Lament" – 11:45
3. "The Drum Thing" – 7:22

## Personnel

[edit]

John Coltrane Quartet

* John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
* McCoy Tyner – piano
* Jimmy Garrison – double bass
* Elvin Jones – drums

Technical personnel

* Bob Thiele – production
* Rudy Van Gelder – recording and mixing
* Nat Hentoff – liner notes

Compact Disc release

* Michael Cuscuna – production and liner notes
* Eric Labson – digital remastering
* Joe Alper – photography
* Chuck Stewart – photography

## Charts

[edit]

Chart performance for Crescent Chart (2022)  | Peak
position

|

Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[10] | 101
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[11] | 38

## See also

[edit]

* Blue World, an album recorded between Crescent and A Love Supreme released in 2019

## References

[edit]

Notes

1. ^ "New Album Releases". Billboard. Vol. 76, no. 28\. 1964-07-11. p. 37\. ISSN 0006-2510.
2. ^ Michael G. Nastos. "Crescent Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
3. ^ Tony Scherman (December 26, 1998). "John Coltrane Quartet The Classic Quartet-Complete Impulse Studio Recordings". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
4. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 289\. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
5. ^ Frances Davis (May 30, 2006). "The John Coltrane Guide". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on January 5, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
6. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 46\. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
7. ^ Milkowski, Bill (November 2005). "Giant Steps Rocks". Jazziz. pp. 32–33.
8. ^ Freeman, Phil (June 2006). "Rev. of SFJAZZ Collective, SF JAZZ Collective 2". Jazziz. pp. 55–56.
9. ^ Kahn (2002), p. 222.
10. ^ "Ultratop.be – John Coltrane Quartet – Crescent" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
11. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – John Coltrane Quartet – Crescent" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved February 4, 2022.

Bibliography

* Kahn, Ashley (2002). A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album (1st ed.). Viking Press. ISBN 978-0-14-200352-7.

* v
* t
* e

John Coltrane

Discography

Prestige
albums|

* Mating Call (with Tadd Dameron)
* Tenor Conclave
* Coltrane
* Interplay
* Wheelin' & Dealin'
* John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio
* Soultrane
* Cattin' with Coltrane and Quinichette
* The Cats (with Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Burrell)
* Lush Life
* Settin' the Pace
* Standard Coltrane
* Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane
* Stardust
* Dakar
* The Believer
* Black Pearls
* Bahia
* The Last Trane
* Two Tenors

Blue Note
albums|

* Blue Train
* Coltrane Time

Atlantic
albums|

* Giant Steps
* Bags & Trane (with Milt Jackson)
* Coltrane Jazz
* My Favorite Things
* Olé Coltrane
* Coltrane Plays the Blues
* Coltrane's Sound
* The Avant-Garde

Impulse!
albums|

* Africa/Brass
* Coltrane
* Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
* Ballads
* Impressions
* John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
* Crescent
* A Love Supreme
* The John Coltrane Quartet Plays
* Ascension
* Meditations
* Kulu Sé Mama
* Expression
* Om
* Cosmic Music (with Alice Coltrane)
* Selflessness: Featuring My Favorite Things
* Transition
* Sun Ship
* Infinity
* Interstellar Space
* The Africa/Brass Sessions, Volume 2
* First Meditations
* Dear Old Stockholm
* Stellar Regions
* Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album
* Blue World

With
Miles Davis|

* Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet
* 'Round About Midnight
* Cookin'
* Relaxin'
* Milestones
* Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants
* Kind of Blue
* Jazz Track
* Workin'
* Steamin'
* Someday My Prince Will Come
* Miles & Monk at Newport
* Basic Miles
* At Newport 1958
* Jazz at the Plaza Vol. I
* 1958 Miles
* Miles Davis Quintet at Peacock Alley

With
Thelonious Monk|

* The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings
* Thelonious Himself
* Monk's Music
* Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
* Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane

Live albums|

* "Live" at the Village Vanguard
* Live at Birdland
* New Thing at Newport
* Live at the Village Vanguard Again!
* Live in Seattle
* Live in Japan
* Afro Blue Impressions
* The Paris Concert
* The European Tour
* Live Trane: The European Tours
* Bye Bye Blackbird
* Newport '63
* The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings
* The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
* Live at the Half Note: One Down, One Up
* Offering: Live at Temple University
* A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle
* Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy

Compilations|

* Alternate Takes
* The Best of John Coltrane
* The Classic Quartet – Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings
* Coltrane for Lovers
* The Coltrane Legacy
* The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis with John Coltrane
* The Prestige Recordings
* Countdown: The Savoy Sessions
* Dial Africa: The Savoy Sessions
* Feelin' Good
* Gold Coast
* The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings
* High Step
* The Major Works of John Coltrane
* Jupiter Variation
* Ken Burns Jazz: John Coltrane
* The Last Giant: Anthology
* Living Space
* To the Beat of a Different Drum
* Trane's Blues
* Trane's Modes

Compositions|

* "26-2"
* "Alabama"
* "Blue Train"
* "Central Park West"
* "Countdown"
* "Equinox"
* "Giant Steps"
* "Impressions"
* "Lazy Bird"
* "Moment's Notice"
* "Mr. P.C."
* "Naima"
* "Ogunde"

Documentaries|

* The Church of Saint Coltrane
* The World According to John Coltrane
* Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary

Related|

* List of sessions
* Coltrane changes
* Sheets of sound
* Alice Coltrane (wife)
* Ravi Coltrane (son)
* Philadelphia house
* Dix Hills home
* 5893 Coltrane asteroid
* John W. Coltrane Cultural Society
* Tribute albums
* Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

|

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