Next month, longtime Red Hot Chili Peppers bass wizard Flea will finally release his solo debut Honora, the trumpet-based jazz album that he's been envisioning for decades. The record features big-deal guests from across the jazz and rock worlds, and it represents a real leap into the unknown for an extremely familiar presence. We've already posted Flea's purposeful opening shot "A Plea" and "Traffic Lights," his collaboration with his Atoms For Peace bandmate Thom Yorke. Today, we get to hear Flea reimagine a Frank Ocean classic.
You probably already know the Frank Ocean song "Thinkin Bout You." It was a single on Ocean's official debut album, 2012's Channel Orange, and it became a proper chart hit, an early indication that Ocean could be a commercial force as well as a critical one. It's one of several covers that Flea has included on Honora, which also features his takes on Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain" and Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman." When Flea launched his YouTube page last fall, the first post was a video of him playing "Thinkin Bout You" on trumpet for his son Darius.
For the studio version, Flea has turned "Thinkin Bout You" into an mournful and orchestral instrumental ballad. Flea himself plays trumpet and electric bass on the track, while the ascendant jazz force Anna Butterss, recently profiled in our monthly jazz column, adds upright bass. Bright Eyes' Nate Walcott did the string arrangements. Here's what Flea says about the song in a press release:
Channel Orange! When that record came out, it really blew me away. I listened to it ten million times. It was something I just couldn’t stop listening to. I loved it so much and still do. Just one of those real watershed moment records for me. "Thinkin Bout You" is one of the many great songs on that record, and I thought it would be fun to play on trumpet.
Then I went to Nate Wolcott, who plays keyboards on Honora on several tunes. He did that string arrangement for me. He stepped up to the plate and really did something beautiful. I just wanted to get the honest beauty of the melody because it’s a great song.
Check out Flea's cover and Frank Ocean's original below.
Honora is out 3/27 on Nonesuch.
