For decades, Flea has wanted to release a trumpet-based jazz record, and now it's finally happening. Flea's solo debut Honora comes out on Friday, and he's already shared the singles "A Plea," the Thom Yorke collab "Traffic Lights," and his version of Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You." Last night, Flea was on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show to explain the whole trumpet-album thing and to give a rare non-"Star Spangled Banner" solo performance.
Flea's solo album is not a real solo album, of course. He recorded it with a crew of jazz all-stars, and they joined him onstage for his performance. It's a trip to see Flea and Jeff Parker going back and forth, noodling out the "Thinkin Bout You" verse melody an bass and guitar. That's how Flea did the performance: Bass on the verses, trumpet on the choruses. He had a whole string section behind him, too. It was pretty!
Flea had a big bandage on his head during the Fallon performance, and during his interview segment, he explained that he ran off to pee while he was in the middle of playing a song, and then he smacked his head on a glass door while running back. (He talked about his head wound on his Instagram story before the performance, too: "It really kind of felt beautiful to film it. I busted up my head, but the grooves are flowing.") Flea also told Fallon about meeting Dizzy Gillespie when he was young and about the tradition that he wants to take part in on Honora. Watch the performance and the interview below.
Honora is out 3/27 on Nonesuch.
