Trio Transition

Trio Transition is the fourth studio album by American jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller together with drummer Frederick Waits and bassist Reggie Workman.

The album was recorded on December 16, 1987 in Tokyo when that ad-hoc trio toured there, and released on the Japanese label DIW.

Miller contributed three songs, including the constantly shifting post-bop vehicle "No Sidestepping," the unusually structured ballad "Whisper," and the thoughtful hard bop tune "Second Thoughts," the latter a tune that shows the influence of James Williams, with whom Miller had recorded previously while working with Art Blakey.

Workman's "Shades of Angola" is introduced by Waits' furious solo before taking shape as a brisk samba as the others join the drummer.

Waits' tense "Two Faces of Nasheet" (dedicated to his son, who also took up the drums) is easily the most exotic offering of the date, delivering a Far Eastern flavor and a hint of John Coltrane in Miller's McCoy Tyner-like solo, though it also shifts back and forth into a more conventional ballad setting.