Pharoah Sanders - Crescent with Love (Venus, 1992)

Pharoah Sanders, tenor sax
William Henderson, piano
Charles Fambrough, bass
Sherman Ferguson, drums

Recorded October 19 & 20, 1992
Sear Sound, NYC
Engineer: Fred Kevorkian

In 1964, John Coltrane hired Pharoah Sanders to play on the album Meditations. With the addition of Rashied Ali as a second drummer, the "classic quartet" became a sextet. Hearing Sanders for the first time was a shocking experience, but I played Meditations often and it became one of my favorites. 

I recall Nat Hentoff's liner notes inside Impulse's gatefold sleeve. I'll paraphrase: "Sanders played minute after minute in a register I did not know the tenor had." As Hentoff also noted, the overblowing and screeching that had become common ways for energy players to express emotional climaxes were the fundamental mode of expression for Sanders.

Twenty years later, I was again shocked to find Crescent with Love, Sanders' 2-CD tribute to John Coltrane. I was surprised because Sanders plays tender ballads such as "After the Rain," "Lonnie's Lament," "Naima," "Wise One," among others. All are delivered with a sumptuous tone that bears no resemblance to the raw screeching on Meditations. My shock quickly turned to gratitude for Sanders' choice to celebrate Coltrane's more lyrical legacy.

I was able to see Sanders perform live at the Atlanta Jazz Festival in the late 1990s. The memory is foggy, as it is with festivals where the performance times are limited, the roster long, and the outdoor seating grassy. I remember mostly the power of Sanders' tenor.

Crescent with Love has been issued in at least 9 versions, all with the same program but with different cover art and formats. We can now revel in Japanese vinyl and SACD versions sporting the original impressionist artwork shown above. 

Crescent's predecessor, Welcome to Love: Pharoah Sanders Plays Beautiful Ballads (Timeless, 1991), has received comparable treatment. It is also warmly recommended.

Sanders' remarkable career lasted 55 years, beginning with a dozen or so Impulse albums in the 60s and 70s, and continuing past his 80th birthday. My last citing was the minimalist collaboration of Sanders, Floating Points, and the London Symphony Orchestra (Promises, Luaka Bop, 2020). Sanders died in 2022 at age 81.