(SOUNDBITE OF RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS SONG, "HIGHER GROUND")
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Since the 1980s, no bass player has ruled the rock world quite like the man called Flea. He became a star with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And now he's finally recorded his first ever solo album, and surprisingly, he's chosen to feature his first love, jazz trumpet.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEA'S "MORNING CRY")
MARTÍNEZ: The album is called "Honora." And when we asked him to come by NPR's Culver City studios to talk about it, we said, bring your horn.
FLEA: (Playing trumpet).
MARTÍNEZ: That's Flea playing right in front of me a piece he wrote called "Morning Cry." Now, I have my own history with a trumpet, so I had to start our conversation there. So, Flea, my brother and I used to fall asleep to my dad playing his trumpet.
FLEA: Oh, nice.
MARTÍNEZ: I mean, he would do it every single night. I just went over to drop something off, like, a few days ago.
FLEA: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: And I could hear him in the garage. And he's in his 70s now. And he still plays because he's always afraid of letting his lip get out of shape.
FLEA: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: So I'm wondering, what did you have to do to get your lip back into shape?
FLEA: Everyday practice. It's the most demanding instrument. And it drives my wife up a wall.
MARTÍNEZ: Well, because why? Just the noise or - it can't be the noise.
FLEA: Just because it's constant, no matter what.
MARTÍNEZ: Oh.
FLEA: I'm like, you know, well, we have to go do this thing today. My friend, you know, we have...
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, I see, I see. Yeah, yeah.
FLEA: No, I got to practice. And I salute your father...
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
FLEA: ...For keeping his chops alive and nurturing his mighty embouchure. And I'd love to hear him play someday.
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, that'd be great.
FLEA: What kind of music is he into?
MARTÍNEZ: He's into jazz.
FLEA: Like, as a child, I grew up with a stepfather who was a jazz musician, a very serious jazz musician. And when I started playing bass and started playing in a rock band and, you know, I sat down the trumpet, he was very disappointed. And, you know, as me, my rebellious nature was to be...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: You know, give him the middle finger and just rock out.
MARTÍNEZ: So what made you pick up the trumpet in the first place when you were a little kid?
FLEA: Well, my stepfather had a lot to do with it, the first time all his buddies came over and got together and started blowing bebop in my living room. And I was just, like, floored.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow.
FLEA: You know, I was just, like, taken over by the Holy Spirit. You talk about, like, speaking in tongues...
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter) Yeah. Yeah.
FLEA: ...Like people do in churches or whatever. Like, I was rolling on the floor screaming, laughing, seeing colors in a psychedelic frenzy of excitement. Like, a portal had opened up. And I'd seen something that human beings were capable of that I didn't know existed before.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEA'S "MAGGOT BRAIN")
FLEA: I had this picture in this jazz book of Dizzy Gillespie playing. And the way he looked, the way his cheeks puffed out, his horn, like, reaching up to the sky, I was just in love with it. You know, and it's always been a part of my life. Even when I was in punk rock bands playing, you know, (vocalizing), dirty, groovy, you know?
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: I never abandoned it. It was always there for me and always, like, in my head, something that one day I'll nurture this love and do my best to express it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A PLEA")
FLEA: My blood runs cold. I'm feeling hate all around. There's no solution. It's never been a solution. Come on. Are you with me? We all know what it is.
MARTÍNEZ: Do you have, or even maybe as a kid, do you remember some of the first pieces that you remember playing? Because the one song, Flea, I swear to God...
FLEA: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: The one song that I will have in my head for the rest of my life is my dad's warmup song on the trumpet, which is "Joy Spring." And it goes...
FLEA: Whoa, really?
MARTÍNEZ: (Imitating trumpet). Oh, you're going to do it. Good.
FLEA: (Playing trumpet).
MARTÍNEZ: That's it. Dude, you just took me back to my dad playing that song.
FLEA: You heard that?
MARTÍNEZ: He still does it to this day.
FLEA: God bless his heart.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: That's the most beautiful song. And Clifford Brown, you know, I think is my favorite trumpet player of all time. And he composed that song.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: And he most famously played it with his quintet with Max Roach. And so I decided, you know, I'm going to play every day, and after two years of playing every day, I'm going to go make a record. And that's what I did, which is called "Honora," named after my great-great-grandmother.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEA'S "FRAILED")
MARTÍNEZ: Why do you think horns aren't a part of pop music anymore? I mean, I grew up listening to, like, horns on songs all over the '70s and '80s. And they were very popular songs.
FLEA: You know, popular music has changed with the advent of the computer. People make music on computers now. And oftentimes, you know, horn parts are sampled a lot, you know, and played a lot, too. But not like it was, not like the feature that it was.
MARTÍNEZ: Earth, Wind & Fire. I mean, some of those...
FLEA: Yeah, Earth, Wind & Fire, all of Motown.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: I mean, but a lot of the way that people used to interact with one another in a room, looking at each other, playing together with people who studied music, you know, very deeply, that's just - there's a lot less...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: ...Of that type of live musicians playing together in a studio.
MARTÍNEZ: By the way, Earth, Wind & Fire, my dad considers them probably some of the greatest musicians that have ever lived.
FLEA: I'm with him.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: That was always a band, like, for me, with the Chili Peppers, how I thought of it, of what I wanted to be. I was fortunate to grow up in public school in Los Angeles. It was very diverse, 30% white, 30% Black, 30% Latino.
MARTÍNEZ: That was my high school.
FLEA: Yeah. Asian.
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, yeah. That was - my high school, same thing.
FLEA: It was like, all the white kids liked Zeppelin and Kiss. All the Black kids liked, you know, Ohio Players and P-Funk. But Earth, Wind & Fire...
MARTÍNEZ: Everyone.
FLEA: ...Everybody liked Earth, Wind & Fire.
MARTÍNEZ: It wasn't anyone who didn't like them (laughter).
FLEA: It crossed - old people liked Earth, Wind & Fire.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: Kids like Earth, Wind & Fire. You went to a wedding, Earth, Wind & Fire was playing.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
FLEA: And, like, with the Chili Peppers, especially early on, we love all music. And I always wanted the band to be beyond category. And Earth, Wind & Fire, for me, was the model for that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HUMP DE BUMP")
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: (Singing) Hump de bump, doop bode. Bump de hump.
MARTÍNEZ: That is Flea. His first solo album is called "Honora." Flea, thanks a lot.
FLEA: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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