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Watch: On his debut solo LP, Flea fulfills a lifelong promise

We all have those things that we're going to get around to learning one day, like knitting or Spanish or karate.

For Flea, it was the trumpet. He first picked it up as a child before putting it down for a bass guitar, an instrument that would serve him well for decades with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

But all along, Flea was obsessed with jazz. His debut solo album, Honora, is the result of a decades-long promise and years of practice. Today, we're going deep with Flea, from growing up in New York in a jazz-filled household to taking lessons from saxophonist Rickey Washington — Kamasi Washington's dad — plus the opportunity to work with one of his musical heroes, who very famously made fun of his band: Nick Cave.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

Copyright 2026 XPN

Miguel Perez
Miguel Perez is a radio producer for NPR's World Cafe, based out of WXPN in Philadelphia. Before that, he covered arts, music and culture for KERA in Dallas. He reported on everything from the rise of NFTs in the music industry to the enduring significance of gay and lesbian bars to the LGBTQ community in North Texas.