Expassionates - Landscapes
Recording Takes Listeners on Cinematic Journey
This December marks the tenth anniversary of the Expassionates’ first release Verse, Chorus, Bridge, a studio project originally conceived of and led by Scott Easterday. In July 1998, he assembled seven local musicians to record the album at the now-defunct El Torreon (formerly the famed Cowtown Ballroom during the 1970s) in midtown Kansas City. Recording engineer Chad Meise worked with Easterday to capture the country-rock-lounge jazz experiment that resulted in music unlike anything else in the local scene at the time. Over the past two years, the Expassionates have reassembled as a four-man band led by Easterday and have tightened their sound, producing ten timeless songs on Landscapes.
Expassionates - Landscapes CD Release Party
With American Catastrophe and Celandine.
Saturday, November 22, 9 PM
Davey’s Uptown, 3402 Main
FEATURED TRACKS:
Expassionates - Nine Lives
Expassionates - Big Blue Town
Expassionates - Landscapes Interview
Streamed version available in the PresentMagazine.com Media Player.
In recent years, Easterday teamed again with wunderkind guitarist Marco Pascolini, who performed on the original recording, to tackle new and reworked compositions as a duo. Wanting to add more rock-n-roll punch to the updated songs, they recruited friend and bassist Richard Burgess and drummer Mike Meyers. Meyers eventually left the band due to other commitments. Burgess, also a bassist for Pendergast, suggested Sam Platt who formerly owned Red House Studios in Lawrence, Kansas and had handled duties as recording engineer for Pendergast. As was the case here, Kansas City's music scene continues to be tightly connected. Easterday knew Platt by way of introduction from friend and fellow musician Tony Ladesich, head honcho of Pendergast. Fortuitously, Platt signed on to complete the lineup and locked in the sound of the Expassionates.
L to R: Scott Easterday, Marco Pascolini, Richard Burgess, and Sam Platt
Platt, who studied jazz drums at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is a crucial element to the band. Having grown up listening to and playing many types of music, Platt approaches material with a repertoire of ideas, expressive timing, and subtle flourishes that embellish a song with gusto, texture, and depth. Burgess describes Platt with an understated reverence, “He’s not just a drummer; he’s a musician.”
Burgess delivers bass lines that surge life into the backbone of the music, invoking country heartache, muscular rock-n-roll, or effervescent pop from song to song. His style on the recording is James Dean cool and decidedly relaxed; live on stage, he’s Chuck Berry barely able to corral his head bobs, wild grins, and lanky limbs while expressing joy in the moment. Marco Pascolini, a stellar guitarist with an improvisatory style, offers few words when asked to describe his playing. Instead, he conjures a sound that is eloquent as poet Pablo Neruda, feisty as Hunter S. Thompson, and stirring as president-elect Barack Obama.
Positioned in the midst of this assembly, veteran musician Scott Easterday leads with the confidence of a poker player holding all of the aces. His painstaking effort of writing lyrics, composing songs, and shaping a sound has come to fruition with Landscapes.
Related Articles:
Read Past Articles · the Archives
Fun Thumbs
