Transition (John Coltrane album)

1970 studio album by John Coltrane

Transition

Studio album by

John Coltrane

Released| July 1970[1]
Recorded| May 26 & June 10, 1965
Studio| Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Genre| Avant-garde jazz
Length| 42:23
Label| Impulse!
Producer| Alice Coltrane
John Coltrane chronology
| Selflessness: Featuring My Favorite Things
(1969)  | Transition
(1970)  | Sun Ship
(1971)

|
|

Transition is an album of music by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, recorded in 1965 but released posthumously only in 1970. As its title indicates, Transition was a bridge between classic quartet recordings like A Love Supreme and the more experimental works of Coltrane's last years.

Coltrane's playing alternates between blues idioms and the free jazz that would dominate his final work. Of the four musicians on this album, pianist McCoy Tyner was still the most grounded in traditional jazz. Bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones were finding new ways to approach their instruments, while Coltrane took the lead with a newfound musical freedom.

Transition's title track is a fifteen-minute modified blues, whilst "Dear Lord" is a ballad featuring Roy Haynes substituting for Jones on drums. "Welcome," which replaces "Dear Lord" on the album's compact disc release, is a five-minute ballad with a theme pitched high in the tenor saxophone's altissimo register and making extensive use of multiphonics. The closing "Suite" is a twenty-minute performance, covering a variety of moods. "Vigil", which concludes the CD release of the album, is a fiery duet between Coltrane and Jones.

Three months after this recording, Coltrane's quartet moved further into experimental territory with the album Sun Ship.

## Reissues

[edit]

The Impulse! label altered the album's track listing on the first CD edition, removing "Dear Lord" and adding "Welcome" and "Vigil" (both of which had previously appeared on Kulu Sé Mama). However, the 2001 Japanese edition restored the original track listing. "Dear Lord" would later appear on the compilation Dear Old Stockholm.

## Reception

[edit]

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide| [3]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music| [4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz| [5]

In his AllMusic review, Fred Thomas awarded the album four stars and wrote: "Transition acts as a neat perforation mark between Coltrane's classic quartet and the cosmic explorations that would follow until Trane's passing in 1967... Spiritually reaching and burningly intense, the quartet is playing at full steam, but still shy of the total free exploration that would follow mere months later on records like Sun Ship and the mystical atonal darkness that came in the fall of that same year with Om."[2]

The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings commented: "Coltrane is plunging into something new, and leaving behind some of the ideas and some of the people who have gone this far on the journey with him... there is an endless quality to the music, a sense that there is no final destination."[5]

## Other versions of tunes

[edit]

The tune "Transition" appears on the album Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall by Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, and Roy Hargrove.[6] "Dear Lord" was recorded by Gary Bartz on the album Coltrane Rules: Tao Music Warrior.[7] A version of "Welcome" appears on the 1973 Santana album titled Welcome.[8]

## Track listing

[edit]

1. "Transition" – 15:31
2. "Dear Lord" – 5:32
3. "Suite" (Prayer and Meditation: Day, Peace and After, Prayer and Meditation: Evening, Affirmation, Prayer and Meditation: 4 A.M.) – 21:20

Recorded on May 26 (#2) and June 10 (#1, 3), 1965. "Dear Lord" would be moved to the CD issue of Dear Old Stockholm with the rest of the sessions from that LP.

### 1993 CD

[edit]

1. "Transition" – 15:31
2. "Welcome" – 5:34
3. "Suite" (Prayer and Meditation: Day, Peace and After, Prayer and Meditation: Evening, Affirmation, Prayer and Meditation: 4 A.M.) – 21:20
4. "Vigil" – 9:51

CD track 2 and 4 not part of original LP.

## Personnel

[edit]

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

## References

[edit]

1. ^ The Story of Impulse Records, pag. 237
2. ^ a b Thomas, Fred. "John Coltrane: Transition". AllMusic. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
3. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 47\. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
4. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
5. ^ a b Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (1998). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. Penguin Books. p. 326.
6. ^ Ginell, Richard S. "Herbie Hancock / Michael Brecker / Roy Hargrove: Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall". AllMusic. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
7. ^ "Gary Bartz: Coltrane Rules: Tao Music Warrior". AllMusic. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
8. ^ Jurek, Thom. "Santana: Welcome". AllMusic. Retrieved February 24, 2021.

* 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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