{"product_id":"flea-honora","title":"Flea - Honora","description":"\u003cp\u003eAfter a nearly five-decade (and counting) career as one of his generation’s defining rock bassists, Flea releases his first full-length solo album, \u003cem\u003eHonora\u003c\/em\u003e, on Nonesuch Records.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTime and space have finally allowed him to return to his first musical loves: jazz and playing the trumpet.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe album features the track ‘Traffic Lights’, co-written with Thom Yorke and Josh Johnson, as well as the previously released ‘A Plea’.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eFlea and the Honora band embark on an international tour, playing intimate venues in select cities, this May.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor \u003cem\u003eHonora\u003c\/em\u003e, which takes its name from a beloved family member, Flea composed and arranged the music, and also plays trumpet and bass throughout, joined by an elite crew of modern jazz visionaries: album producer and saxophonist Josh Johnson, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Deantoni Parks.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe record features vocals from Flea, as well as friends Thom Yorke and Nick Cave.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eMauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms for Peace) and Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), among others, also join the band.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe album comprises six original songs – including one co-written by Flea, Johnson, and Yorke – as well as interpretations of tunes by George Clinton and Eddie Hazel, Jimmy Webb, Frank Ocean and Shea Taylor, and Ann Ronell.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Deantoni and I played what became ‘Traffic Lights’ the first day,” Flea explains.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003e“Something about it reminded me of Atoms for Peace, so I sent it to Thom.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eJust knowing him, I thought it would be a rhythm and a sensibility that he would relate to.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eAnd I was right, he did.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eWith a gorgeous melody and the words, you know, about living in the ‘upside down’ and how do you make sense of things when we’re getting all this fake shit and real shit?\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eEveryone has their ways of dealing with the world.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eBut he’s just the warmest, free flowing, jamming motherf*cker.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBest known as a founding member and bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea was first introduced to live jazz as a child, when family friends played the music together in his own living room.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003e“It was the greatest thing I ever saw,” he recalls.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003e“The wildness, warmth and we of it.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eStraight Bebop.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eBoom.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI knew there were higher things on this earth, way above the pettiness that had left me disheartened.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe holy trifecta of my life, music, sports and nature was complete.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough he dreamed of being like his heroes Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Clifford Brown, Flea’s path went a different direction: His close friend Hillel Slovak asked him to pick up the bass and join his rock band when he was sixteen, leading Flea into a decades-long career with the hugely successful Chili Peppers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut late one night in 1991, in the midst of that band’s ascent, Flea was acting in the now-classic Gus Van Sant film My Own Private Idaho when he shared with a friend, “I want to make an instrumental record with deep hypnotic grooves, trippy melodies layered on top, meditations on a groove.”\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe caveat was that he first needed to get his trumpet-playing together.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Flea neared his sixtieth birthday, he realized if he did not pick up the trumpet again, he probably never would. So he resolved to practice every day for two years–in the midst of a stadium tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers, with a wife and newborn at home. At the end of those two years, he would make an album, regardless of where his knowledge or talents ended up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUntil \u003cem\u003eHonora\u003c\/em\u003e, Flea had never been scared of making music before.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eHe worried that the all-star band he had assembled would think he was “a non-playing motherf*cker, charlatan, rock poseur or fan.”\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eBut, he says, “It turns out they were all the most genuinely supportive people, moving me deeply and daily with their generous spirits…\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eSitting in a room and playing the music with them made me feel like I was on drugs.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI was buzzing, tripping and floating around the studio.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI love them, they truly gave of themselves.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI bow all the way down.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NONESUCH","offers":[{"title":"Red 2LP","offer_id":56290660712712,"sku":"REL-01667","price":45.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1027\/6723\/1240\/files\/f123f6bcba502fb3fbf3d217540dff95.png?v=1775630390","url":"https:\/\/www.relevantrecordcafe.co.uk\/products\/flea-honora","provider":"Relevant Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}