Transition (John Coltrane album)

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.