What do you do after conquering rock after releasing so many albums? Well, if you’re Flea, you would record an album in honor of jazz and of all the people who have influenced your journey so far. So it is that we are offered “Honora,” a collection of jazz pieces, covers and improvisations that Flea, bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, has been toying with.

Beginning with “A Plea,” that starts with a percolating bassline. A second later another bass figure answers back, starting a conversation. This is obviously Flea playing, yet later, a melodic figure played by a trumpet which makes me think, could this be Flea as well? Truth is, he does both. And it’s a joy to see him do so.

I saw Flea and his band perform on NPR’s Tiny Desk and it’s interesting. Flea’s musicians include Anna Butters on bass, Jeff Parker on guitars, Deantoni Parks on drums and Josh Johnson on keyboards and sax. Johnson also produced the album with Flea. Many musicians have also contributed to this album including Chad Smith, and John Frusciante among others. In the same song, we can hear Flea holler-speak some truths: “Build a bridge / shine a light,” “live for peace / live for love” he says, before getting to the important part: “build a bridge / it's where the courage is.”

In “Traffic Light,” Flea makes out like sashaying cats, sounding like an alternative jazz group. Singing ethereally like shadowy figures, is Thom Yorke (Radiohead). Meanwhile In the instrumental “Frailed,” improvisations take over, basslines cook like a heartbeat, while synths and flutes lord it over, turning over a progressive jazz tune. In “Morning Cry,” Flea and the Honora band sounds like an old-timey jazz band in which the band gets to improvise over. Getting better at playing the trumpet, Flea can be heard improvising over the weird chord changes in this song.

On his covers on the album, Flea has some thoughts that he wants to share like on P-Funk’s “Maggot Brain” (“Planet Earth is pregnant / because we have knocked her up”). As he plays some refreshing melodies on his trumpet.

In “Wichita Lineman” Flea lets Nick Cave sing and it’s not your Glen Campbell’s version whatsoever that we hear. All the sweetness of it is gone actually, but what replaces it is  Cave’s shaky vocals, in this slow, dirge-y version of the song. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less, in fact it’s turned into a meditation, where the singer and Flea, searches for said lineman or whatever it is that he is offering.

There’s something familiar about “Thinking 'Bout You,” where the melody makes you go: where did I hear this before? But such is the mellowness of this song as played by the trumpet, and every now then, the bass. Turns out, this song is an instrumental cover of a Frank Ocean tune.

The last cover on the album called “Willow Weep For Me,” is an instrumental cover of an Ann Ronel song. Spacey and ambitious. In “Free As I Want To Be,” Flea returns to some rock with groovy fills and basslines while the guitars break out in healthy improvisation.

This album is inspired by Flea’s great-great grandmother (Honora) and of her hardships as an Irish immigrant to Australia, while the cover is a photograph of Shahin Badiyan, Flea’s mother-in-law in Iran in the late 60’s. In a social media post, the bassist-trumpeter honors her by saying she “is a strong Persian woman, and the spirit of a free Iran lives in her heart.”