Flea - Honora (Vinyl 2LP)

Flea has spent more than forty years as one of the most recognisable bass players alive. Honora is his first solo album, and it's a jazz record led by his trumpet.

The horn came first, long before the bass, and the playing here has none of the swagger you'd expect. It's careful, breathy, often quiet, built around space rather than filling it. He's still on electric bass across most of the album, but it sits low in the arrangements and lets the brass lead. Josh Johnson produced, and the band is drawn from the current Los Angeles jazz scene: Jeff Parker on guitar, Anna Butterss on upright bass, Deantoni Parks on drums, Mauro Refosco on percussion, Nate Walcott on Rhodes. Chad Smith plays drums on the opening track. John Frusciante turns up on trumpet and snare treatments, and mixes one song.

Six of the ten tracks are Flea's own. The other four are interpretations, and the choices say a lot: Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain", Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman" with Nick Cave singing, Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You" with a full string section, and the standard "Willow Weep For Me". Thom Yorke co-wrote "Traffic Lights" and plays piano and synth on it as well as singing. Warren Ellis plays alto flute and viola on "Frailed". Flea wrote the sleeve notes himself.

Recorded at Sunset Sound and Soundtree Studios, mixed at Eastwest Studios by Ryan Hewitt, mastered by Eric Boulanger at The Bakery. Gatefold sleeve, ten tracks across three sides, with the second record pressed single-sided and its unplayed face carrying a screen-printed etching.