Transition Records — The Complete Discography
Although they only released some 15 jazz albums, Transition also had several albums announced which never saw release.
In our article Jazz In Transition we touched on the Transition discography, and mentioned several of those left unreleased, but here we wanted to compile our research and present a complete discography of one of jazz music’s most interesting short-lived labels.
Catalogue # - Artist - Title - Released - Recorded - Label (if not Transition)
TRLP-F-1 — Sam Gary — Sam Gary Sings — 1956 — December 12, 1955 in Boston, MA
TRLP-F-2 — Unknown — Chicago Blues— Unreleased
TRLP-F-3 — Sam Gary — Sam Gary Sings The Gospel — Unreleased
TRLP-F-4 — Raphael Boguslav — Unknown — Unreleased
TRLP-F-5 —Jo Mapes — Unknown — Unreleased
TRLP-F-6 — Dean Lawrence — Unknown — Unreleased
TRLP M-1 — Lovey Powell And Brooks Morton — Lovelady — 1956 — March 19, 1956 in Cambridge, MA (sometimes listed March 18)
TRLP C-1 — Russell Woollen — Flute Quartet — Unreleased — August 1954 (See: TRLP-15)
TRLP 1 — Herb Pomeroy — Jazz In A Stable — 1955 — March 13, 1955 at The Stable, Boston, MA
TRLP-J-2 — John Windhurst — Jazz At Columbus Ave. — 1955 — April 22, 1955 in Boston, MA
TRLP-J-3 — Unknown — Jazz Underground — Unreleased
TRLP-4 — Unknown — Jazz for Harvard Squares — Unreleased
TRLP-J-4 — Donald Byrd — Byrd’s Eye View — 1956 — December 2, 1955 in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
TRLP 5 — Donald Byrd — Byrd Jazz — 1956 — August 23, 1955 at New World Stage Theatre, Detroit, MI
6 — Yusef Lateef — Yusef — Unreleased
7 — Pepper Adams — Pepper — Unreleased
8 — Pepper Adams — Quintet Introducing Curtis Fuller (alternate title: Salt and Pepper) — Unreleased — April 20, 1956 in Boston, MA — Blue Note (Released by Blue Note as High Step in 1975)
9 — Unknown — Birmingham Jam — Unreleased
TRLP 10 — Sun Ra — Jazz By Sun Ra Vol. 1— 1957 — July 12, 1956 at Universal Studios, Chicago, IL
11 — Charles Mingus —Unknown — Unreleased — July 17, 1955 at Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island
12 — Dave Coleman — These Things By Dave Coleman — Unreleased
13 — Unreleased
14 — Unreleased
TRLP-15 — Russell Woollen — Quartet For Flutes & Strings — 1956 — August 1954
16 — Unreleased
TRLP 17 — Donald Byrd — Byrd Blows On Beacon Hill — 1956 — May 7, 1956 Steve Fassett’s home, Beacon Hill, Boston, MA.
TRLP 18 — Jay Migliori — Jazz Down Beat — Unreleased — November 7, 1955
TRLP 19 — Cecil Taylor Quartet — Jazz Advance — 1957 — September 14, 1956 in Boston, MA
TRLP 20 — Doug Watkins — Watkins At Large — 1956 — December 8, 1956
TRLP 21 — Lucky Thompson Big Band — Lucky Strikes! — 1956 — April 17, 1956 (B1 to B6) and May 29, 1956 (A1 to A6), Paris, France
22— Unreleased
TRLP 23 — The Dartmouth Indian Chiefs — Chiefly Jazz— 1957 — March 23, 1957, Kresge Auditorium, M.I.T.
24 — Unreleased
25 — Unreleased
26 — Unreleased
TRLP 27 — Fran Thorne — Piano Reflections — 1957 — May 20, 1956
28 — Sun Ra — Unknown— Unreleased — 1956 — Delmark (Released by Delmark as Sun Ra And The Arkestra – Sound Of Joy in 1968)
29 — Unreleased
TRLP 30 — Various — Jazz In Transition — 1956
? — Louis Smith — Unknown — Unreleased — 1957 — Blue Note (Released by Blue Note as Louis Smith – Here Comes Louis Smith in 1958)
Unreleased / Unknown
As you can see above, there are several catalogue numbers without a release, but others were also announced and never given catalogue numbers.
From the Folk series only Sam Garry’s debut was released, and while some were given catalogue numbers, others were announced including releases by Odetta, Sonny Terry, and Pete Stein, per the booklet included with Sam Garry Sings.
On the back of Herb Pomeroy’s Jazz In A Stable TRLP 1–10 were listed, which includes three series of albums, but not all of these were released. The Boston Panorama Series was to include Jazz In A Stable and Jazz on Columbus Ave, both of which were released, alongside the unreleased Jazz Underground (TRLP 3) and Jazz for Harvard Squares (TRLP 4). The later catalogue number was taken by Donald Byrd’s Byrd’s Eye View.
The Motor City Scene series would have covered TRLP 5–8, but no titles were mentioned. Artists announced as part of the series were Donald Byrd, Yusef Lateef, Curtis Fuller, Bernard McKinney, Barry Harris, Hindall Buttts, and “many other Detroiters”.
While those two series were announced as “soon to be released”, a third series Jazz On The Farm was listed as due for release within the next twelve months and would cover TRLP 9 and 10, featuring Jazzmen of Tennessee & Alabama. These went unreleased, and TRLP 10 became Sun Ra’s debut album.
The Transition Spring Catalog lists the same entries in the jazz series as Jazz In A Stable, from TRLP-J-2 to TRLP-J-10, with two additions TRLP-J-11 and TRLP-J-12. The former was to be a Charles Mingus LP featuring his 1955 Newport Jazz Festival set. Notably, the Charles Mingus recordings remain unreleased to this day. While TRLP-J-12 would have been an album by Dave Coleman, which is said to have been erased, per Michael Fitzgerald, with only one song existing on a test pressing.
An album by Sheila Jordan was announced in 1956, but in 1979 Jordon clarified the session never went ahead. In the same interview she mentions an album with Joe Gordon for Transition. Gordon had signed with Transition in May 1957, but nothing was ever released and it is unknown whether the sessions were recorded.
The 1956 session which included Paul Chambers, John Coltrane, Pepper Adams, Curtis Fuller, Roland Alexander, and Philly Joe Jones was partially released when Train’s Strain appeared on the 1956 compilation Jazz in Transition. The full session was later released by Blue Note on High Step in 1975, and has appeared on several reissues and compilations of Coltrane and Chambers.
In February 1957 trumpeter Louis Smith recorded his debut album for Transition which also featured Cannonball Adderley. Some discographies list this as having the catalogue number TRLP 30, but that had already been given to the compilation Jazz In Transition in late 1956. Instead Smith’s album was left unreleased by Transition, and later appeared on Blue Note in 1958 as Here Comes Louis Smith.
After two years of releasing music, Transitions closed in 1957 and the catalogue was eventually purchased by Blue Note and Delmark which has allowed most of their recordings to stay in print.
For more information on the history of Transition and Tom Wilson, see our article Jazz In Transition.
Sources
The excellent Jazz MF list compiled by Michael Fitzgerald in 1999, release liner notes, Transition promotional booklets, and reviews and advertisements which appeared in Down Beat magazine.
Updated 29 May 2024: I have added mention of the source for the Charles Mingus and Dave Coleman LPs. Added Louis Smith to end of Discography. Originally this was left out as it never had a catalogue number.
