Flea - Honora
★★★★
NONESUCH
Flea has long been adept at transcending stigmas attached to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and this star-studded assertion of his jazz bona fides has quite the rollcall. Guesting vocalists Thom Yorke and Nick Cave (precariously close to self-parody on Wichita Lineman) will get the headlines, but it’s LA jazz hipsters who are the key contributors to Honora: saxophonist/ producer Josh Johnson and bassist Anna Butterss, both from superb improv unit SML; Tortoise guitar great Jeff Parker.
Flea proves to be a nice rather than barnstorming trumpeter, albeit a subtly ambitious one: witness his Chet Bakerish take on Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain. But ultimately, he respects the collectivist energies of the LA scene he’s infiltrated, so that the Ornette Coleman-influenced Morning Cry is as much a showcase for Parker as it is the bandleader. Endearingly earnest, too – as Flea exhorts on A Plea, “I’m not being corny, this shit is real!”
Honora is out March 27 on Nonesuch.
ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
Tracklisting:
1. Golden Wingship
2. A Plea
3. Traffic Lights (feat. Thom Yorke)
4. Frailed
5. Morning Cry
6. Maggot Brain
7. Wichita Lineman (feat. Nick Cave)
8. Thinkin Bout You
9. Willow Weep for Me
10. Free As I Want to Be
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