Having been gifted Eric Dolphy's instrument by his mother after his untimely passing, Coltrane began playing flute publicly in 1966 during the tour his quintet undertook in Japan. Expression, the last album issued during his lifetime contained the 16 minute piece To Be in which he and Pharoah Sanders both use flutes exclusively. During this period Coltrane also began to use multiple percussionists and drummers to create a constant ebb and flow of rhythm and percussive colour to his ever increasing palate of sound. This trio of two percussion and flute pays homage to that sound world.