FLEA - HONORA

Red Hot Chilli Peppers bass player brings out a solo record and it is Monk and Davis like Jazz with Thom York and Nick Cave thrown in... my Surprise Record of the Year so far!

Now here is a pleasant surprise.

I had heard that Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ bassist Flea had a solo record out. Now when I am in the mood and I can take some Red Hot Chilli Peppers but a solo album by one of their number is not dragging me away from new records by Iron and Wine, NeedToBreathe, Joshua Burnside or Joe Pernice.

Then I heard that Nick Cave sings Wichita Lineman on it. I am suddenly intrigued. Flea’s cover is maybe too reverent to the original but it is still Nick Cave singing one of the greatest songs ever written… and in there a trumpet solo by Flea!

It seems that this bass player has gone back to pre-Pepper days and his first love, the trumpet. He has then created this side step from rock-funk into jazz. Think Monk, Shorter, Davis jazz.

It’s all quite a refresh but alongside the new trumpet, the former bass still plays fluid and stunning as well. Some of the best waves of fluid, melodic bass playing the year or any other year are right here in the same mix.

It is not like me to listen to a lot of jazz but with Cave and then Thom Yorke luring me in I am thoroughly enjoying Honora. It is so inventive, atmospheric and purposeful. As well as Jimmy Webb we get the range of covers from Funkadelic to Frank Ocean among the originals.

There are some statements that Flea wishes to make. He closes with perhaps his delighted conclusion to all of what goes before. It’s a repetitive mantra: “I’m free to be what I want to be”.

Earlier he takes the opportunity to preach into our current world crisis:

“My blood runs cold

I’m feeling hate all around

It’s no solution

It’s never been a solution

Come on

Are you with me?

Build a bridge

Shine a light(Peace and Love, Peace and Love)”

Flea is a leading contender in Surprise Record of the Year.