Whatever you think of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, you have to admire Michael Peter Balzary’s efforts to establish an aesthetic hinterland beyond the unit-shifting funk-rock of his regular band. Even at the height of the Chilis’ socks-on-cocks tomfoolery, Flea was telling anyone who’d listen that Gang Of Four were the greatest band who ever lived, acting in indie movies like My Own Private Idaho, investigating Transcendental Meditation and playing lounge jazz with Mike Watt. Since the turn of the millennium, he’s ramped up his extra-curricular activities, forming supergroups with Damon Albarn and Thom Yorke, and guesting with the likes of Patti Smith, Tom Waits and Morrissey.
He’s also gravitated back towards his first instrument – trumpet – and his first musical love, jazz (his stepdad Walter Urban Jr used to host bebop jams at their house in Hollywood). It’s a sideline he’s taken seriously; he even enrolled to study music theory and composition at the University of Southern California, and more recently signed up for jazz lessons with Kamasi Washington’s dad Rickey. Approaching his 60th birthday, Flea realised that if he didn’t make his long-talked-about solo record now he never would, so he resolved to practise the trumpet every day for two years and make an album at the end of it, come what way. is the impressive result.
However, it’s hard to deny that Flea’s trumpet-playing sounds more emotionally uninhibited when riffing on someone else’s tune, exemplified by a moving version of Funkadelic’s mournful mind-mangler “Maggot Brain”. Ann Ronnell’s jazz standard “Willow Weep For Me” is not especially improved by a swarm of space-invader synths; but a subtly orchestrated take on Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin About You” is a triumph, with Flea playing the song’s tumbling, wistful verses on bass guitar before passionately blasting out its glorious chorus melody on a flumpet (a hybrid of a flugelhorn and a trumpet).
One final twirl of that impressive Rolodex finds Nick Cave wandering in to sing “Wichita Lineman”, given the gentlest of midnight swings by the band. Taken on its own merits, it’s brilliant and beautiful. Of course it is: it’s Nick Cave doing “Wichita Lineman”. But it also feels like too much of a sure thing for an album attempting – largely successfully – to tap into a culture that’s all about spontaneity and risk.
So maybe this could have been two different records: the big-name covers album and the back-room jam session. But in terms of conveying the passions, frustrations and intriguing contractions of its restless instigator, Honora is perfect.
Und hier, guck mal, Olaf, besonders die Antwort auf die erste Frage fürhrt und zu unserem neuen Lieblingslabel Label International Anthem …
What prompted you to recruit the likes of Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson for this album?
For quite a while, up until pretty close before making it, I didn’t know if I was going to get any musicians or just do it all myself. I was making demos at home with my 808, playing bass and trumpet and keyboards, and I was thinking about doing it like that. There were a couple of records I was listening to a lot at the time. One was The Way Out Of Easy by Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet and another was Meshell Ndegeocello’s The Omnichord Real Book, which Josh produced. I thought, ‘Fuck, man, if I was going to partner up with anybody, he would be the perfect guy.’
What was it like to essentially join a pre-existing improv quartet?
I was excited and nervous because they’re all very studied jazz musicians and I’m an uneducated fucking punk rocker with a lot of hope and yearning. I have my fair amount of intuition and emotion that has served me well through the years, but I don’t really know my bebop shit, I don’t really know my alt chords. But I wanted to learn it. The first day in the studio was really moving, how they were there for me. Every take felt great.
How did you persuade Nick Cave to sing “Wichita Lineman”?
I played with him and Warren [Ellis] a little bit on the Carnage tour. In one of my few conversations with Nick, he had expressed to me his love for Jimmy Webb and I was like, “God, maybe he’d want to sing on this?” It just felt right, so I sent him the track, and he responded within a half-hour: “Yes, I’ll do it.” When I heard it, I wept like a fucking baby, man. He really just destroyed me.
4 Kommentare
flowworker
Sam Richards writes
Whatever you think of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, you have to admire Michael Peter Balzary’s efforts to establish an aesthetic hinterland beyond the unit-shifting funk-rock of his regular band. Even at the height of the Chilis’ socks-on-cocks tomfoolery, Flea was telling anyone who’d listen that Gang Of Four were the greatest band who ever lived, acting in indie movies like My Own Private Idaho, investigating Transcendental Meditation and playing lounge jazz with Mike Watt. Since the turn of the millennium, he’s ramped up his extra-curricular activities, forming supergroups with Damon Albarn and Thom Yorke, and guesting with the likes of Patti Smith, Tom Waits and Morrissey.
He’s also gravitated back towards his first instrument – trumpet – and his first musical love, jazz (his stepdad Walter Urban Jr used to host bebop jams at their house in Hollywood). It’s a sideline he’s taken seriously; he even enrolled to study music theory and composition at the University of Southern California, and more recently signed up for jazz lessons with Kamasi Washington’s dad Rickey. Approaching his 60th birthday, Flea realised that if he didn’t make his long-talked-about solo record now he never would, so he resolved to practise the trumpet every day for two years and make an album at the end of it, come what way. is the impressive result.
However, it’s hard to deny that Flea’s trumpet-playing sounds more emotionally uninhibited when riffing on someone else’s tune, exemplified by a moving version of Funkadelic’s mournful mind-mangler “Maggot Brain”. Ann Ronnell’s jazz standard “Willow Weep For Me” is not especially improved by a swarm of space-invader synths; but a subtly orchestrated take on Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin About You” is a triumph, with Flea playing the song’s tumbling, wistful verses on bass guitar before passionately blasting out its glorious chorus melody on a flumpet (a hybrid of a flugelhorn and a trumpet).
One final twirl of that impressive Rolodex finds Nick Cave wandering in to sing “Wichita Lineman”, given the gentlest of midnight swings by the band. Taken on its own merits, it’s brilliant and beautiful. Of course it is: it’s Nick Cave doing “Wichita Lineman”. But it also feels like too much of a sure thing for an album attempting – largely successfully – to tap into a culture that’s all about spontaneity and risk.
So maybe this could have been two different records: the big-name covers album and the back-room jam session. But in terms of conveying the passions, frustrations and intriguing contractions of its restless instigator, Honora is perfect.
flowworker
Not my Coca Cola … but I like Sam Richards‘ review very much ☘️
Aber irgendwie hat es was, auf jeden Fall Charme – und ein All Star Ensemble 😉
Und dass alle Beteiligten an diesem Retro Cocktail Freude haben, ist spürbar.
M.E.
flowworker
Könnte ein grower werden, haha….
Und hier, guck mal, Olaf, besonders die Antwort auf die erste Frage fürhrt und zu unserem neuen Lieblingslabel Label International Anthem …
What prompted you to recruit the likes of Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson for this album?
For quite a while, up until pretty close before making it, I didn’t know if I was going to get any musicians or just do it all myself. I was making demos at home with my 808, playing bass and trumpet and keyboards, and I was thinking about doing it like that. There were a couple of records I was listening to a lot at the time. One was The Way Out Of Easy by Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet and another was Meshell Ndegeocello’s The Omnichord Real Book, which Josh produced. I thought, ‘Fuck, man, if I was going to partner up with anybody, he would be the perfect guy.’
What was it like to essentially join a pre-existing improv quartet?
I was excited and nervous because they’re all very studied jazz musicians and I’m an uneducated fucking punk rocker with a lot of hope and yearning. I have my fair amount of intuition and emotion that has served me well through the years, but I don’t really know my bebop shit, I don’t really know my alt chords. But I wanted to learn it. The first day in the studio was really moving, how they were there for me. Every take felt great.
How did you persuade Nick Cave to sing “Wichita Lineman”?
I played with him and Warren [Ellis] a little bit on the Carnage tour. In one of my few conversations with Nick, he had expressed to me his love for Jimmy Webb and I was like, “God, maybe he’d want to sing on this?” It just felt right, so I sent him the track, and he responded within a half-hour: “Yes, I’ll do it.” When I heard it, I wept like a fucking baby, man. He really just destroyed me.
Olaf Westfeld
Ich bin gespannt, Interview und Text von Herrn Richards sind vielversprechend.
Die Taz ist hingegen… eher angetan als begeistert: https://taz.de/Soloalbum-Debuet-von-Chili-Pepper-Flea/!6163125/ (auch ein schöner Text).