Transition Records: The obscure and (un)reissued

I’ve written about Transition Records and their discography before. But recently, I found one of their more obscure releases had been reissued on CD, and I wanted to look at their entire catalogue once more to see what had and hadn’t been reissued so far.

The obscure reissued

Most of the Transition catalogue was purchased by Delmark or Blue Note and reissued later, such as those featuring Sun Ra or Donald Byrd.

These albums have been reissued repeatedly over the years, including vinyl reissues by Blue Note in Japan that are designed to look the same as their original releases. But other labels have stepped in too, and I’ll highlight the most obscure below.

Transitions first jazz release, Herb Pomeroy Jazz In A Stable was reissued as Herb Pomeroy And His Stablemates Live At The Stable, Boston 1955 by Spanish label Fresh Sound Records in 2008. It contains one bonus track, Tiny’s Blues, that featured on the Transition compilation album Jazz In Transition in 1956. Since 2011, Live At The Stable, Boston 1955 has been available to buy digitally or stream.

Lovey Powell and Brooks Morton’s album Lovelady was the first and only release as part of Transition’s mood series. Unlike most of their albums, this release from Transition featured singing, and until recently wasn’t widely available. But, in 2023 Stage Door Records in the UK reissued this on CD and it’s available to buy digitally or stream. Though, I found not all streaming services had this one.

Transition released Chiefly Jazz, the one and only album by The Dartmouth Indian Chiefs in 1967, and it was reissued on CD in 1997 with bonus tracks from a 1956 live session. While I can’t find a copy for sale anywhere yet, one copy does exist at Dartmouth Library. The song order has been swapped so Side B of the LP plays first now, with three bonus tracks in the middle before the original Side A. It also contains new liner notes detailing the groups history, written in 1997 as five of the original band members were set to reunite.

Jazz In Transition, the compilation album featuring various offcuts from Transition’s album sessions, was released in 1956 and then remastered and reissued on CD for Japan in 1994. If you don’t mind digital, Transition Archives released the album on Apple Music/iTunes and Spotify in 2017. Otherwise, several of the tracks have been included as bonuses on albums by their respective artists. Of these releases, it’s likely the easiest to find.

Finally, Piano Reflections by Fran Thorne is kind of available, depending on your region. On Spotify or Apple Music the album was released as “Piano Reflections (Produced by Tom Wilson)” by Transition Archives in 2017. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a place to buy the album as a physical copy outside of the original pressing, and the digital version may not be available in all countries either.

The un-reissued

Only two albums have never been reissued, as far as I’ve found:

Sam Gary’s Sam Gary Sings, and Russell Woollen’s Quartet For Flutes & Strings.

Sam Gary’s album was licensed to Esquire and released in the UK one year after the US, so it is slightly easier to find a cheap copy on vinyl. But it’s strange the album has never been reissued anywhere. Sam Gary had a strong connection to Josh White and other folk musicians, so you would assume this would have been collected into a compilation or remastered from vinyl by one of the many European labels reissuing obscure blues, rock, and jazz. But, not yet.

For the composer Russell Woollen, Quartet For Flutes & Strings would have been his debut album. This one is a bit of a mystery, because there’s no samples on YouTube or elsewhere online, unlike every other album from Transition. It was another classical album, which could be why it has less interest compared to Transition’s jazz output. If the Transition Archives label ever decides to put out some more albums, this would be the one I’m most eager to hear, just to say I’ve listened to the entire catalogue.

Update 6 Jan 2025: A copy of Russell Woollen’s Quartet For Flutes & Strings has been uploaded to YouTube.