Earlier this week, Flea stood in front of thick stacks of vinyl, holding a copy of his new trumpet album, Honora. The shelves were stuffed with records — spanning African, classical, hip-hop — that he’d collected since he was 11 years old, far before he made his mark with funky slap bass in Red Hot Chili Peppers.
His omnivorous tastes live at the very core of Honora, as the songs lean soulful, meditative, and straight from the heart, reconnecting the celebrated bassist to his first instrument. Its spirit is the result of painstaking repetition, where Flea’s desire to become a real student of jazz coincided with a two-year RHCP stadium tour. “No matter the stress or travel, I practiced trumpet every day, oftentimes to the consternation of my fellow hotel guests and my sometimes annoyed yet always supportive bandmates,” he writes in the liner notes. Alongside imaginative originals, Flea also reinterprets Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain,” Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” and Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You.”
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Flea played the latter on Fallon on Monday, joined by a 10-piece orchestra, as well as drummer Deantoni Parks and members of Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet: upright bassist Anna Butterss, saxophonist Josh Johnson (subbing in on keys), and Parker on guitar. Those players are part of a larger cast of friends and experimental notables, who are scattered across 10 tracks of spoken word, evolving arrangements, and, at the center of it all, Flea’s velvety trumpet. Radiohead frontman and Atoms for Peace bandmate Thom Yorke co-writes and sings on “Traffic Lights,” while Nick Cave lends his gothic baritone on “Wichita Lineman.” The 11-minute “Frailed” is an early highlight, slipping into a lysergic sojourn that’s enlivened by glitchy electronics and the mystical flute of Rickey Washington (father of Kamasi Washington and Flea’s trumpet mentor).
The album was produced by Johnson, who Flea calls “a guide for me, a beacon, and I never could have done it without him.”
Following its release, Flea and the Honora band will head out on a sold-out tour, playing a handful of intimate venues across North America and Europe. See the full routing here.
Stream Flea’s Honora below.
