RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - JOHN FRUSCIANTE - Honora

“What music do you like, Thelonious? What do you listen to?”

“Oh, everything. I like all music”

“All of it? Even country?”

“Sorry, but exactly which part of my answer didn't you understand?”

(from an interview with Thelonious Monk, 1960s)

Forget for a moment the Flea with the exuberant, monkey-like, amphetamine-fuelled physical presence, the one who pounds the bass with Red Hot Chili Peppers or bugs his eyes out in films like “Beautiful and damned”, “The Big Lebowski” or “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”.

Forget for a moment his stormy past too, one that sprouted in an often hostile family context, seasoned with minor teenage crimes including the casual use and dealing of drugs with his lifelong friend Anthony Kiedis and the late Hillel Slovak (the first RHCP guitarist).

You'll discover that probably the only thing that has guaranteed his physical and spiritual survival all these years has been the need to keep learning.

From afternoons spent at home listening to his stepfather's band tear through ferocious bebop sessions to his early experiments with the cornet (later swapped for the trumpet), from his hardcore punk days with Fear to his work as an in-demand session player on countless pop and rock records, Michael Balzary has always shown, however unconsciously, a desire to push beyond his main band, striving to grow as a musician and as a human being, ideally without constraints.

His still boyish enthusiasm, along with his tendency to well up while talking about things that matter to him, are the starting points for understanding a project like "Honora", which is essentially the attempt of a 63-year-old man to tell his own story through a fuller picture of the individual colours that make him up.

After a first solo experiment in 2012 with the EP "Helen Burns" - raw, but already capable of dispensing a wealth of musical references - Flea felt the need to go back to what he considers his true imprinting, the only meaningful legacy to emerge from his difficult relationship with his stepfather: jazz.

Bearing in mind that, like Thelonious Monk, Flea approaches music as a vast, boundless whole, it was bebop (first and foremost that of Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie, then that of Miles Davis) that guided his discovery of the world of the seven notes. But to actually start moving within that territory, Michael had to go back and deepen his study of the trumpet, in order to fight off the sense of inadequacy that came from dealing with people who had built entire careers on that very sound.

What strikes you immediately about "Honora", beyond the guest appearances by Thom Yorke (Flea's artistic partner since the days of Atoms For Peace) and Nick Cave, is the presence of a genuine all-star lineup of specialists: Jeff Parker on guitar, Anna Butterss on double bass (go back and dig up her remarkable 2024 album "Mighty Vertebrate"), Deantoni Parks on drums, Mauro Refosco on percussion, producer and saxophonist Josh Johnson, and veteran Rickey Washington (Kamasi's father) on flute, who has become something of a mentor to Flea on this journey. None of them could really have said no to a collaboration like this, but Balzary probably would never have reached out to them had he not been repeatedly reassured of his ability to hold his own alongside them.

From the very first single released, "A Plea", the themes running through the whole record are made clear: an elaborate yet street-level take on contemporary jazz ("Make something beautiful/ I don't care if it's a little scrap of squiggly crayon on a paper/ Make something beautiful and see somebody/ Give it to somebody/ I'm not being corny, this shit is real"), steeped in strong Black-music references, and fittingly reflected too in the instrumental arrangements, which nod to Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain", Frank Ocean's "Thinkin' Bout You", and the seventies pride of "Free As I Want To Be".

Flea and his bandmates show real grace in venturing into other territories, dressing things up along the way with electronics (the version of "Willow Weep For Me", featuring a synth treatment inspired by John Frusciante), with ambient textures (the eleven gorgeous, rarefied minutes of "Frailed"), or with existentialist country (Nick Cave's vibrant vocal turn on the cover of "Wichita Lineman"), even at the cost of occasionally losing a bit of focus.

Contrary to the expectations - understandable ones, too - of many fans, "Honora" is not a record built around mere bass showmanship or virtuosity. If anything, it shows total dedication to songwriting and to the urgency of communicating what feels true to Flea today, following the path of a sincere tribute to a genre from the past without ever losing sight of the present, as the cover art - chosen well before any of this could have been planned - unwittingly reminds us.

In that photograph, showing a dove perched on the shoulder of Michael's mother-in-law (we're in 1960s Iran, before it was strangled by dogma), you can already sense the full intent of someone proudly reclaiming a desire for freedom and expression while keeping hope intact.

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27/03/2026