Crescent With Love
Sanders will be forever known as the tenor saxophonist who stood beside John Coltrane during the last years of the ultimate tenor saxophonist's life, and on this 2 CD set, five of the 12 compositions are by Coltrane. The focus is not on Coltrane the volcanic avant-gardist, however, but on Coltrane the underrated melodicist and romantic. Sanders leads a mainstream piano quartet through restrained, even lyric, arrangements of Coltrane's blues and ballads, and makes them sound as tuneful and tender as the album's standards, "Misty," "In a Sentimental Mood," and "Body and Soul." What also emerges is Sanders's distinctive voice on the sax--as full of throaty, vibrant overtones when he's crooning as when he's roaring.--Geoffrey Himes