The album 'Kulu Se Mama' was released in 1967 by Impulse! Records, combining material from two different sessions in 1965. The centerpiece and title track, 'Kulu Se Mama', is an 18-minute extended composition that includes African percussion and chanting, featuring drummer Elvin Jones and percussionist Frank Butler.
The first three tracks were recorded on June 10, 1965, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with Coltrane's classic quartet (McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones). The fourth track, 'Selflessness', was recorded on October 14, 1965, with a sextet that included Pharoah Sanders and drummer Rashied Ali.
The title 'Kulu Se Mama' comes from a traditional African song that Coltrane adapted. The album represents one of Coltrane's last recordings with his classic quartet before his transition to a freer, more abstract sound, and was released posthumously in January 1967, just months before his death.