Free at Noon Flashback: Cookie Rabinowitz brings the funk for 2019

Cookie Rabinowitz | photo by John Vettese for WXPN

For the first Free at Noon concert of 2019, Manauynk singer-songwriter Cookie Rabinowitz brought his laid-back, funk-dappled “four-eyed soul” to World Cafe Live for a warmly receptive crowd.

Over the course of eight songs in 30 minutes, Cookie and his band grooved to the steady beat of drummer Freddy Berman, with flourishes from John Swana on the Electronic Valve Instrument (or, as the man at the mic screamed at several turns, “SPACE FLUUUUUTE”) with Jim Stager on bass and guitarist Tom Spiker. At the half-way point of the set, a trombone came into the mix as well amping up the energy from a breezy stroll to a brisk jog.

Give the performance a listen below, and catch Cookie Rabinowitz at Jamey’s House of Music in Lansdowne tonight at 8 p.m.; tickets and more information on the concert can be found here.