Honora

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Honora is Flea’s debut solo album, released March 27, 2026 on Nonesuch Records and conceived as a jazz‑leaning project that lets him return to his first instrument, the trumpet, af ter nearly five decades as the kinetic bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Produced by LA saxophonist Josh Johnson, the record was largely cut in February 2025 with a “dream ensemble” of contemporary jazz players including Johnson, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Deantoni Parks, plus guests Thom Yorke, Nick Cave, Mauro Refosco, and Nate Walcott. Across ten tracks—six originals and four covers—it moves between moody spiritual‑jazz, groove‑heavy fusion, cinematic balladry, and free‑floating ambient passages, with Flea alternating between trumpet and bass at the centre of the sound.The originals include opener “Golden Wingship,” the politically charged spoken‑word jazz suite “A Plea,” knotty mid‑tempo groove “Frailed,” and “Traffic Lights,” co‑written with Yorke and Johnson, on which Yorke sings and plays piano and synth over a slow‑burn rhythm section. The covers show Flea’s range of reference: a spacious, echo‑laden take on Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” (reimagined for trumpet and guitar), an atmospheric version of Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” featuring Nick Cave on vocals, a lyrical, almost ECM‑ish instrumental reading of Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You,” and Ann Ronell’s standard “Willow Weep for Me.” The album title honours his great‑great‑grandmother Honora, whose migration from poverty in Ireland to Australia and beyond becomes a loose spiritual frame for music that circles resilience, empathy, and the search for beauty amid violence. Critics note that while Honora isn’t a radical, boundary‑smashing jazz statement, it’s a surprisingly sincere and coherent one—rooted in LA’s current jazz scene, generous to its collaborators, and focused less on bass heroics than on mood, melody, and collective interplay. Show more