"Rockin' out" while "sleepin' lots" and "playin' piano with [his] feet," Jonah Rank is one of the most exciting rising artists in the music scene today. Though "only a part-time musician" and a current undergraduate student at Columbia University, Jonah rocks the piano harder than just about anyone else in the music industry.

Though he despises being compared to other artists, Jonah Rank's wild piano playing and his musical sensibility - combined with his own personal spiritual life - has often termed him "the Jewish Ben Folds" or "the Jewish Frank Zappa".

In March of 2008, Jonah Rank released Your Favorite Album, what he calls his first album of "experinstrumental music - meaning that the music is both experimental and instrumental, and I don't have to say both words." On Your Favorite Album, Jonah performs a different instrument-sound on each track (organ, bass, banjo, chromonica, piano, shofar, trumpet, drums, guitar, violin, and more). Putting the indie in independent artist, Rank recorded this album so that he could learn how to better record all of his instruments he has lying around. "I was very proud of my debut CD, but it was recorded all wrong. I hope this one's gone a little better."

Rank blames himself for the "unique" sound quality of his debut CD from 2006, Loud and Dumb, which Jonah recorded himself as mixer, producer, singer, and the entire back-up band. "Though I could certainly play all of the instruments decently," says Jonah, "I didn't necessarily know how to record an album; but I did it anyway."

Trying to mend the past, he has started re-recording some of the songs from Loud and Dumb that he felt were good songs which his earlier recordings "simply did not do justice." More importantly though, he is also amidst recording a pop/rock-comedy followup to Loud and Dumb, and Jonah has already released the first single from this upcoming album, "Genetic Test (The Missing Abba Song)". Though Rank says that "Genetic Test" was a song he wrote in 1973 and was rejected by Swedish pop sensation ABBA, few facts do support his claim, and it seems more likely that "Genetic Test" is a recent satirical work of his poking fun at Mamma Mia!.

On top of all the above, Rank is currently involved in more projects than he can ever think of at one time. Though he can be found banging away at a drum kit behind pianist/singer-songwriter Lance Rhodes, he can also be found playing keyboard for hip-hop group Verses for Masses (led by Ghanan singer/poet/author Ishmael Adjetey Osekre). Rank is currently collaborating with a number of other artists, composing soundtracks, sound-scores, and musical settings for all sorts of works of art (dance, film, plays [including musicals], poetry, and more). Perhaps his most curious project of late has been his composing of musical settings for various Jewish prayer texts, about which he recently wrote and whose "Yedid Nefesh" is currently available for a free listen (click above to listen to a preliminary demo). 

"I've got a lot on my plate right now, and I'm digesting it all very slowly," Rank says. "In a little while, we'll see if it all looks as good as the menu makes it sound; but I'm very optimistic."

Powered by iSOUND.COM

An Abbreviated List of Jonah Rank's Musical Activities:

• Singer/songwriter 
• Comedy-musician 
• Jewish-musician (has performed at Congregation Orach Chaim, Midway Jewish Center, and elsewhere)
• Dance/Movement Accompanist (Watch/Listen from 6:06-6:46 in the VIDEO for this article from THE NEW YORK TIMES) 
• Recordist/Mixer 
• Film Composer
• Liturgical Composer (has already debuted numerous tunes from his Kabbalat Shabbat compositions)
• Pianist/Multi-Instrumentalist (currently playing keyboards for Ishmael Adjetey Osekre's Verses For Masses)
• Improviser (has improvised at jam sessions led by Lorene Bouboushian)
• Anything else that can be heard on Jonah Rank's solo albums at CD Baby, iTunes, and elsewhere
• And everything else!