Transition
Musically,Transitionfinds John Coltrane treading water between the lyric splendor ofA Love Supremeand the turbulent explorations ofSun Ship. Transition finds the band adhering to tune, tempo, tonality, and time in more-or-less traditional manner, whereas two months later onSun Shipthe quartet comes on like theBook of Revelations--completely absorbed in the spirit of sonic exploration. You can hear Coltrane probing away at the heraldic outline of the title theme, very much in the lyric mode ofA Love Supreme, but already playing with the extreme interval leaps between upper and lower registers that he was to exploit in such a vivid manner during his vocalized solo on "The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost" (fromMeditations). Elsewhere, on the extended suite "Prayer and Meditations," you can hear Coltrane deconstructing a basic swing pulse, while "Peace and After" finds the saxophonist trying to distill these enigmatic explorations into a pure lyric chant, that persisted throughout all his subsequent work, no matter how bold and frenetic.--Chip Stern