This post is by Scott and Dan
Recorded on June 6 and 7, 1988
In December 1987 pianist Mulgrew Miller recorded an album called Trio Transition, the name of the band he had assembled with Reggie Workman and Frederick Waits. Recorded in Tokyo and released on DIW, Trio Transition did not receive much attention or acclaim except from diehard fans. It certainly did not divert attention away from Miller's fine Landmark LPs, including Wingspan, recorded a few years earlier.
Trio Transition's follow up recording, Trio Transition with Special Guest Oliver Lake, must have shocked Miller's fans because it placed him squarely in a free-jazz space where no one could have expected him to go after his excellent straight-ahead jazz albums. But that's what someone with the inclinations of Oliver Lake can do. The transformation is amazing. Miller plays both "inside" and "outside" depending on the guest's provocation. During the stormier numbers, such as Stanley Cowell's "Effie," Miller can sound a lot like McCoy Tyner, who roiled within John Coltrane's quartet but could also play expansive ballads in a trio format. And it works amazingly well. It helps that to have Workman and Waits in the boiler room, stoking the fires and prompting Lake to ever higher levels of expression.
The group sounds very much like a preview of Lake's band, Trio 3, which recorded albums for Dizim, Passin' Through, Palmetto, and Intakt between 1996 and 2017. Trio 3 often included pianists as special guests, notably Geri Allen, Jason Moran, and Vijay Iyer. Workman anchored Trio 3 on bass along with Andrew Cyrille's drums.
Whether the intensity was too much for Miller or not is unknown. However, he soon returned to more conventional groups over in his long and successful career. But this single venture into Oliver Lake's world left us with the spectacular fireworks on display in Transition with Special Guest Oliver Lake, one of the most outstanding records of the decade.
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