Transition (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Transition
Type = studio
Artist = John Coltrane


Released = 1970
Recorded = June 10 & 16, 1965
Genre = Jazz
Length =
Label =
Producer =
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"Transition" is an album of music by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. The album was recorded on June 10 and June 16, 1965, and released posthumously. Befittingly for its title, "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, especially, alternates between evolved blues idioms and the free jazz that would dominate his final work. Coltrane's solos on the title track suggest a partially-systematized contrast between degraded, slave-like human consciousness via sheets of sound, and a shrieking conception of truth and transcendence, a distinction harder to discern on later recordings. The title track exhibits an operatic dramatization of the human search for meaning.

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 experiment. "Welcome" is the album's most traditional work, a five-minute ballad featuring an impressive performance from Tyner. The album's "Suite" is a twenty-minute performance, covering a variety of moods. "Vigil", which concludes the album, is a fiery duet between Coltrane and Jones.

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

Tracklisting

#Transition
#Dear Lord (moved to the CD issue of Dear Old Stockholm with the rest of the sessions from that LP)
#Suite: "Prayer and Meditation: Day, Peace and After, Prayer and Meditation: Evening, Affirmation, Prayer and Meditation: 4 A.M."

1993 CD Track listing

#Transition (15:31)
#Welcome (5:24) (CD only, originally released on Kulu Sé Mama)
#Suite: "Prayer and Meditation: Day, Peace and After, Prayer and Meditation: Evening, Affirmation, Prayer and Meditation: 4 A.M." (21:21)
#Vigil (9:42) (CD only, originally released on Kulu Sé Mama)

Personnel

*John Coltrane: saxophone
*McCoy Tyner: keyboards
*Jimmy Garrison: double bass
*Elvin Jones: drums