Emmet Cohen to Release Vibe Provider August 23, 2024 on Mack Avenue Records
Renowned pianist’s new album is a heartfelt tribute to the late Funmi Ononaiye, a beloved luminary of the NYC jazz scene
Emmet Cohen, among the most extraordinary pianist-composers of his generation, has certainly provided many venues and studios with a vibe.
Especially online, in his phenomenal performance series Live From Emmet’s Place, the 34-year-old improviser has acted as an ambassador for the best and most essential principles of the jazz tradition. He creates his fresh, personal sound using lessons culled from his profound reverence for jazz royalty. He matches his dazzling technical command with a rare gift for melody and musical pathos. And he strives to make every gig, every livestream, a celebration of community—connecting his jazz-rich homebase of Harlem to the massive global fanbase he’s garnered online.
But Cohen isn’t explicitly the Vibe Provider referenced in the title of his superb new Mack Avenue album. A mix of original music and deftly chosen standards, Vibe Provider features players who, like Cohen, address jazz history in the present tense: the core trio of bassist Philip Norris and drummer Kyle Poole or Joe Farnsworth; plus, on select tracks, saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, trumpeter Bruce Harris and trombonist Frank Lacy.
The original Vibe Provider, per his lovingly earned nickname, was the late, great Funmi Ononaiye, a Harlem-based creative who changed Cohen’s ideas about music, life and humanity. Of course, Funmi tended to do that with pretty much everyone he met.
Ononaiye, who died of cancer in December 2023, worked as a programmer for Jazz at Lincoln Center, a DJ and an A&R executive, among other professional roles. But more than anything, the worldly Nigerian-born New Yorker was an omnipresent force of positivity and spiritual healing — “the mayor of Harlem,” Cohen says, whose generous presence could elevate any gig, festival or dancefloor.
But Ononaiye was no mere cheerleader. Opting not to own a smartphone, he practiced and preached a message of authentic experience. “He often used to talk about how we’re too clogged up with information,” Cohen recalls. “Too much news consumption, too much phone, too much everything, and we don’t leave enough space for possibility.”
Cohen first encountered Ononaiye over a decade ago, not long after the young pianist had relocated to New York and started working steadily. “It was one of the first times I realized how much better musicians play when they’re engaged appropriately from the audience,” he remembers. “He brought this old-school spirit of respect, love and enthusiasm to every gig.”
A friendship blossomed and deepened over the years. When the pandemic hit and Cohen developed the Live at Emmet’s Place concept, Ononaiye would often be the lone audience member; his exuberance was so powerful that the band still felt as if they were gigging in a packed club. As the series gathered steam, Ononaiye became an invaluable resource, suggesting lineups and making connections. It’s a scientific fact that Funmi knew every fascinating person on the jazz scene, or any scene.
“Funmi was the vibe provider, but he taught us that we all have that inside of us,” Cohen says. “We all have the ability to brighten a room or to change someone’s world for a minute or a lifetime—with music, vibrations, energy or even just a smile. And those things are important. So I wanted to get some of his favorite musicians together and make a beautiful statement in tribute. That was the concept of this album.”
In addition to calling on Funmi’s pals — like Frank Lacy, who shares the scenebuilder’s “same type of wild, genius spirit” — Cohen penned new music as a celebration of his life. You can imagine Funmi punctuating the sprightly swing and Afro-Cuban grooves of the title track with his trademarked hollers. On that cut, Ononaiye’s friend Cecily Petrarca guests on the koshkah, a West African percussion instrument that Funmi played constantly and masterfully. “He was always teaching people how to play it,” Cohen recalls. “He’d be there with master drummers like Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts or Herlin Riley, showing them stuff. He was playing that instrument even to the end, in the hospital.”
The bittersweet homage “Unblock the Love” was inspired by a favorite phrase of Ononaiye’s: “Tamp down the fear. Unblock the love.” It was a call to ignore the sensory overload of predatory media, social and otherwise — a reminder that this life is about the genuine time we enjoy together. “Everlasting,” with its brushed-ballad opening and midtempo swing, is also a meaningful paean to the relationships we cherish.
Elsewhere, Cohen exalts the irrepressible entertainer Willie Smith with “ Lion Song.” In a bit of so-old-it’s-new ingenuity, Cohen and company improvise the song form in classic stride-piano fashion — an exercise in spontaneous through-composition with delightful, whimsical results. An arrangement of the Jewish hymn “Henei Ma Tov” is both a nod to Cohen’s upbringing and a spiritual exploration of a folklike melody that will enthrall Trane fans. (Which is to say, everyone.) The closing “Emmet’s Blues,” a lean-and-mean adventure in Blue Note/Prestige-style hard bop, is an equally potent acknowledgement of jazz history. “It’s important for listeners to hear us play a familiar form,” Cohen says, “and share some common ground.”
Three standards of the Great American Songbook — “Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” “If This Isn’t Love” and “Time on My Hands” — showcase a touch and lyricism that have made Cohen one of the most respected young pianists to emerge in the past two decades. These performances also underscore his enduring regard for his jazz ancestors. That soulful admiration has manifested in all sorts of unforgettable experiences, from inviting Tootie Heath to play a bar mitzvah, to honoring the elders with his Masters Legacy Series of recordings.
In so many ways, Vibe Provider is a gorgeous and tenderhearted extension of that ethos. “As human beings,” Cohen begins, “we tend to document what we’re doing here on earth, so other generations can appreciate it and learn from what we experienced. And that’s all I tried to go into this project with—to simply document a moment in time and celebrate it.
“That’s what I learned from the jazz masters—and it’s what I learned from Funmi.”