Flea and the Honora Band: Tiny Desk Concert

VPM | By Kara Frame

Published July 13, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT

The night before he stopped by the Desk, Flea took a moment between songs at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C., to call his experience of performing with a jazz band “an adventure.” After four decades as a founding member and bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea was touring on his debut solo album, Honora, in small venues, including the NPR Music office space.

Yes, that’s Flea on trumpet, doubling up on bass and spitting poetry, but as he admits, “I’m just one part of this ensemble.” That ensemble features Tiny Desk alumni Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson and Anna Butterss as well as Deantoni Parks — musicians with deep catalogs across creative music. “Working with the musicians that I’ve worked with has been the most exciting part,” Flea told me afterward, “just jamming, connecting and feeling who they are.”

SET LIST

“Traffic Lights”
“Morning Cry”
“A Plea”

MUSICIANS

Flea: trumpet, bass, vocals
Jeff Parker: guitar
Josh Johnson: sax, keys
Anna Butterss: bass
Deantoni Parks: drums, keys

TINY DESK TEAM

Producers: Kara Frame, Josh Newell
Director/Editor: Maia Stern
Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame
Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Michael Zamora
Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

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Kara Frame

Kara Frame is a video producer and director for NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concerts series. To sum up what she loves most about working on the iconic series, she says, "We put joy into the world." In addition to this work, she manages the NPR Music Instagram account. Prior to her work on the music team, she crafted stories about housing segregation in Baltimore, Md., motherhood in a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, and food deserts in Washington, D.C.

Frame's personal projects have focused primarily on veterans and PTSD. In 2016, her short documentary I Will Go Back Tonight was awarded first place for long-form multimedia at the NPPA Northern Short Course.

In her free time, Frame volunteers with Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW), a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to educating the public about the role of women in visual journalism and fostering their professional success. She organizes the annual WPOW portfolio review and seminar, an event that invites visual journalists of all career levels to share their work with some of the world's top editors from organizations such as NPR, National Geographic, Washington Post, The New York Times, Vox, Smithsonian Magazine, among many others.

Before starting at NPR in 2016, Frame received a B.A. in African-American Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa., and a M.A in New Media Photojournalism from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. When she's not working on videos or volunteering with WPOW, you can find her in her garden, hosting a dinner for friends or getting lost in the woods in her teardrop camper, Sunshine.

See stories by Kara Frame