Flea - "A Plea"

Flea has announced his first ever solo album will be out next year and today he shared the first single, "A Plea."

Remember when André 3000 made his return to music a few years ago with a flute-drive ambient jazz record and took the music world by total surprise? Well, this won't be as shocking to learn, but next year, Flea, founding member and forever bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, will drop his solo debut record and his instrument of choice isn't the bass, but instead the trumpet. If you're unaware, despite the musical nature of his main band, Flea's actually a long-time jazz obsessive and really knows his stuff. Aside from being the naked bass player in the Chili Peppers, Flea has played in Atoms for Peace, with Tom Waits, Alanis Morissette, Johnny Cash, and the Mars Volta amongst many others. He's an icon and one of the most well-respected musicians on the planet. And now he's taking his shot at a jazz record, although this one isn't very ambient. Flea making a solo record isn't too surprising, but I don't think I would've predicted a jazz album and I certainly never would've guessed he'd get some of my favorite contemporaries of the genre to be in his band. The lead single, "A Plea," features Jeff Parker (of Tortoise and solo work) on guitar, Anna Butterss (of SML) on double bass, Mauro Refosco (of Atoms for Peace) on percussion, Kamasi Washington's father Rickey on flute, Deantoni Parks (of Andrê 3000's New Blue Sun band) on drums, production from Josh Johnson (also of SML) and has Flea giving us some great spoken word poetry on top. It sounds like a hallucinatory combo, these underground stars joining one of rock music's biggest legends on a mystical, spiritual jazz quest, and yet everything about it works in a really special way. Flea breaks out into chants and at moments channels the late Jaimie Branch's "take over the world" as he spews lines of love while Butterss dials up bass lines you'd think were Flea himself if you didn't know any better. It's an entertaining and entrancing track and fun to see what Flea can do at this stage in his career. He's always been the life and spirit of the Chili Peppers and it's fun to hear him sound just as exuberant on his own.