Crescent (John Coltrane album)

<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot-->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.

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...
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