Review: Flea – Honora (2026)

Honora is Flea’s first solo album.

First, a confession: I wouldn’t have been particularly sorry if Honora had been a complete flop. After all, it would be an understatement to say that I don’t like the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ music. I strongly identify with Nick Cave’s legendary comment: “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this rubbish?’ And the answer is always ‘The Red Hot Chili Peppers.’” So I wasn’t expecting much when I heard the band’s bassist was making a jazz album. Curiosity got the better of me, though, especially as the album was released by the highly regarded Nonesuch, whose catalogue forms quite a comprehensive map of the history of American contemporary art music and the avant-garde.

And, surprise, surprise: Honora is a rather excellent album.

Digging a little deeper into the background, this is by no means just another rock star’s vanity project, where a musician ventures into unfamiliar territory and imagines he has mastered it with ease. Flea, or Michael Peter Balzary (b. 1962), was introduced to jazz at a young age through his stepfather, a jazz musician, and played the trumpet himself before the bass and rock took over. He was a fan of greats such as Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, amongst others.

As he approached the age of 60, Flea decided to take up the trumpet again. He set himself a rather unusual goal: he would practise for two hours a day for two years and then record a jazz album, regardless of the level he had reached on the instrument. Honora is therefore the result of long-term planning, rather than a whim where a rock star suddenly decides to try something exotic.

The end result is an album on which he makes no attempt to hide the fact that he is, first and foremost, a bassist who has rediscovered his old instrument.

Flea’s bass guitar features on most of the tracks on the album, but its role is different to that in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There’s very little of the familiar ‘lead bass’ to be heard. On a few tracks, the bass is replaced by Anna Butters’ double bass, and in general Flea seems willing to share the spotlight with the band’s other musicians. This is a fundamental difference from his previous work: Honora is not a Flea bass solo, but a collective jazz album on which he is seeking a new musical identity for himself.

The core of the band consists of alto saxophonist and keyboardist Josh Johnson, guitarist Jeff Parker, double bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Deantoni Parks, percussionist Mauro Refoscolo and keyboardist Nathaniel Walcott. The line-up also includes, amongst others, Warren Ellis and John Frusciante (albeit only very briefly), so this is certainly not a session band built around a single rock star.

Review Review: Angine de Poitrine – Vol. II (2026)

The album is largely instrumental, but it also features some high-profile vocalists. Flea’s own hoarse and unadorned voice can be heard on a few tracks, whilst guest vocalists include Thom Yorke and, somewhat surprisingly, Nick Cave himself. Cave’s involvement is particularly amusing, given the comment quoted at the start of this review. It seems no hard feelings were held on either side. And that’s rather endearing.

The album’s most powerful track is the spirited protest song “A Plea”, which blends spiritual jazz and funk. Flea preaches against hatred in his hoarse voice and urges people to join forces. The track, which runs to over seven minutes, is built upon a nifty bass ostinato and builds tension through small crescendos, with the lead roles taken in turn by Jeff Parker’s electric guitar, Josh Johnson’s alto saxophone and Flea’s trumpet.

The almost eleven-minute-long ‘Frailed’, pulsing with a hazy, serene and alluringly minimalist groove, is even more impressive. It moves somewhere at the intersection of Miles Davis’s In A Silent Way, art rock and ECM jazz. The slow build-up doesn’t feel drawn out; rather, the track has a gravity all of its own.

The more electronically driven “Traffic Lights”, on the other hand, is akin to the music of Atoms for Peace (the short-lived supergroup formed by Flea and Yorke), and wouldn’t be entirely out of place on The Smile’s album either. At first I found the track a bit out of place, but in the end it’s precisely that difference that feels welcome. Thom Yorke’s vocals and the synthesisers bring a whole new flavour to the album.

“Morning Cry” is the album’s most distinct bebop track and, at the same time, the point where Flea’s shortcomings as a trumpeter are most evident. His playing is at times uncertain and, particularly in the first half of the track, lacks authority. Towards the end, however, Flea finds a better groove and demonstrates that he is capable of improvising convincingly alongside the rest of the band. The track itself, however, remains a fairly conventional bebop exercise.

Read also:

The most successful cover on the album is Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain”. At the heart of the original 1971 track – a unique piece of funk rock – lies Eddie Hazel’s blistering electric guitar solo, which Flea replaces with a subtly plaintive trumpet. Sasha Berliner’s vibraphone and the wind textures built around it give the interpretation a dreamy, ethereal quality. Surprisingly, I actually like it even more than the psychedelic original.

Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin’ Bout You”, by contrast, is a rather straightforward and somewhat twee rendition with its bland string arrangements. “Wichita Lineman”, on the other hand, plods along so phlegmatically that, despite – or perhaps because of – Nick Cave’s vocals, the track remains rather soporific. Anna Butters’s double bass is, however, a delight to listen to. ‘Willow Weep for Me’ also takes somewhat of a back seat, even though its electronic treatment is intriguing.

Towards the end of the album, the energy does start to wane a little, but the final track, “Free As I Want to Be”, does at least get the pulse racing again. It harks back to the mood of ‘A Plea’, albeit with a rockier edge. Instead of Flea singing a solo, the song’s sole verse – ‘I am free as I want to be’ – is chanted and varied by a larger chorus.

Honora doesn’t offer any real stand-out tracks apart from “A Plea” and “Frailed”, but there’s something about the album’s atmosphere that’s captivating. Perhaps it’s precisely that raw crossover spirit that emerges when a rock musician ventures into somewhat unfamiliar territory. The end result isn’t perfect, but that’s precisely why it feels so intriguing. This isn’t a jazz album by a master trumpeter, but a rock bassist’s sincere – and at times even clumsy – attempt to build a new musical language for himself.

I’ve got a pile of masterful jazz albums on my shelf, but there’s also room for one funk-rock bassist’s quirky take on jazz. And even if Honora were a vanity project, it would at least be an exceptionally harmless one. If, thanks to it, even one per thousand of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ fans discovers jazz, the album will already have achieved something worthwhile.

Best tracks: ”A Plea”, ”Traffic Lights”, ”Frailed”

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

Read also: Review: Yes – Aurora (2026)

Tracks

  1. ”Golden Wingship” 1:01
  2. ”A Plea” 7:39
  3. ”Traffic Lights” 5:41
  4. ”Frailed” 10:50
  5. ”Morning Cry” 3:31
  6. ”Maggot Brain” 4:52
  7. ”Wichita Lineman” 4:22
  8. ”Thinkin’ Bout You” 4:10
  9. ”Willow Weep for Me” Ann Ronnell 3:53
  10. ”Free As I Want to Be” 5:13


Flea: electric bass (tracks 1–4, 8, 10), vocals (2, 10), trumpet (2–6, 8–10), flumpet (7) Deantoni Parks: drums (1–5, 7, 10), vocals (2) Mauro Refosco: percussion (1–4, 7) Nathaniel Walcott: Fender Rhodes (1, 3, 4), vocals (2); string arrangement, string orchestration (8) Anna Butterss: double bass (1, 2, 5, 7, 8), vocals (2) Jeff Parker: guitar (1–5, 7, 9, 10), vocals (2) Chad Smith: drums (1) Josh Johnson: alto saxophone (2, 3), vocals (2, 10), piano (4, 10), Moog synthesiser (9) Rickey Washington: alto flute (2) Vikram Devasthali: trombone (2) Chris Warren: vocals (2) Thom Yorke: vocals, piano, synthesiser (3) Warren Ellis: alto flute, viola (4) John Frusciante: arrangements (4, 9) Sasha Berliner: vibraphone (6) Brian Walsh: clarinet, bass clarinet (6) Derek Davis: flute (6) Nick Cave: vocals (7) Suzie Katayama: conductor (8) Paul Cartwright: concertmaster (8) Luanne Homzy: violin (8) Alyssa Park: violin (8) Stephanie Matthews: violin (8) Jennifer Takamatsu: violin (8) Andrew Duckles: viola (8) Zach Dellinger: viola (8) Vanessa Freebairn-Smith: cello (8) Jacob Braun: cello (8) Thomas Harte: double bass (8) Joel Virgel Vierset: vocals (10) Cyprienne Virgel Vierset: vocals (10) SJ Hasman: vocals (10) Julian Hasman: vocals (10) Melissa Dougherty: vocals (10) Jessica Vautor: vocals (10) Alejandro Montoya: vocals (10)

Producer: Josh Johnson
Label: Nonesuch

Jätä kommentti

Website Built with WordPress.com.

Ylös ↑