2 Shows: Thursday & Saturday; Osekre Songs! - Jonah Rank's MySpace Blog

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Jonah Rank

Last Updated: 11/18/2009

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Status: Single
City: SYOSSET
State: NY
Country: US
Signup Date: 6/26/2006

Sunday, November 15, 2009

2 Shows: Thursday & Saturday; Osekre Songs!

There was a lot of useful information in this E-mail I just sent out, so I'm just gonna copy and paste...

Hello world!

You might be aware that, a little less than a year ago, my music appeared on the website of The New York Times(specifically from 6:06-6:46 of the video accompanying this article). The music was only made possible by the inspiration I drew from the choreography of Lydia Walker and Phillip Askew's "Variations on Surya Namaskara," which has become a minor YouTube hit drawing over 10,000 views from people all around the world presumably not doing any work).

Anyway, Lydia Walker, Phillip Askew and I are back again! This coming week: Thursday night (November 19) at Streng Studio (at Barnard Hall) at 9:30 PM and Saturday night (November 21) at New York City Center Studio 4 at 8:00 PM, the three of us will be performing an exciting new piece. Notably, there will also be a performance at Streng Studio as well on Friday November 20 at 8 PM; however, although my music will be playing for Lydia and Phillip, I will not be playing live: you'd hear a recording of me.

How much does it cost? $10 for non-students, and $5 for students. I hope to see you there!

In other news: you might recall that I recently appeared in a fake music video for "Fire and I," the first single released from the 13 tracks I produced for Ghanaian singer/songwriter/poet/author IshmaelOsekre's debut album No Turning Back From Here. Well, thanks to MySpace and BandCamp, 9 tracks we recorded are now available for free hearing! (Actually, Internet pirates probably have the 4 other tracks available somewhere for free listening, but that's beside the point.) Here are some fun facts about these 9 tracks (which you can find by clicking on the album-covers on the right side of BandCamp or by toggling through the player at MySpace):

"Conflict" - The song ends with Osekre speaking quiet secret messages into the microphone. Can you figure out what he's saying?

"Fire and I" - This was the first song we recorded for the album. We recorded two takes: both times, completely improvising the musical structure. We used the first take for the album.
I really believe that the energy of committed spontaneity is unmatchable, and we both put 100% into what was essentially a jam--but a keeper nonetheless. This song is probably a good summary of the album's theme.

"I Know, I Know" - This track features Andre Rivie on rhythm guitar, and some beautiful vocal solos in the background by Sean Peters and Kristin Young. Watch Osekre introduce this song live on YouTube.

"Never Again (Poetry)" - When recording the album, we experimented with different ways to convey the same words: seeing what messages are conveyed in different musical and non-musical contexts. You might recognize some of these words from "Conflict," from "No More," or another song maybe.

"Nothing Changes" - I have a special affinity for this song's arrangement. I really enjoyed working with Osekre on finding new ways to change up a song about nothing ever changing. Watch out for some sweet guitar licks from Andre Rivie and some beautiful harmonies from Sean Peters and Kristin Young!

"On the Streets" - Osekre has recently been experimenting with changing up this song: feel free to check out this laid-back version or this slightly faster soul-folky version. The album track features, aside from Andre Rivie, Sean Peters and Kristin Young: the incredible percussionist Hannabiell Sanders of Hannabiell & Midnight Blue.

"Verses for the Masses (Poetry)" - Again, an experiment with using words out of their musical context. Also, look out for Osekre flipping some words around in the second verse.

"Verses for the Masses (Song)" - It was an incredible honor to record a song featuring the rapping ofDerrick N. Ashong: political activist, bandleader/singer/guitarist inSoulfege, actor (appearing in Steven Spielberg's Amistad), and a Barack Obama-supporter who was famously mistaken as an inarticulate stereotype.

"We Are Going" - This is the only song on the album where Osekre busts out a chorus in the Asante tongue. Learning these words and learning about Ga and other languages with which Osekre grew up was just a small part of the fun of this project.

Well, anyway: there's still a lot of exciting Jonah Rank news to come! So, hold your horses (unless your horses aren't fans of my music)! But for now, that's all that's newsworthy on this rainy November eve in New York City.

Happy early Thanksgiving!

Jonah Rank

3:23 AM

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