Splendid-AH!

By Tom Collins Catalyst

Send comments to: catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu

jennifer etsitty catalyst (From left) lead vocals and guitarist Lee Ross, Ruben Moreno on trumpet and Mike Baguesse on bass performed Sunday night at the Third Stone Bar and Grill. Splendida is one of 50 bands performing in the TAMMIES Fall Crawl this Saturday.

Don't let the cock-eyed, backward ball cap and green and orange shorts fool you - Lee Ross is a renaissance man.

A jack of all trades, master of some, Ross, lead guitarist and "PFM" (Pathetic Front Man) for the local rock act Splendida is a quintessential artist, whether it's sculpture, set design, commercial production or playing music from any number of genres.

"I call it extreme variety because we do everything from experimental lounge stuff, all the way up to the most raucous surf and rockabilly and everything in between," Ross said.

Oh, and Splendida plays R&B. And funk. Also rock. And pop. And obscure covers.

"But all with a twist," Ross said.

At 32, Ross has played with local award-winning music outfits in Tempe and San Francisco, before landing in Tucson five years ago to do set design for the Kurt Russell film, "Tombstone." The old pueblo; a comfortable place for a virtuoso with a carpeted van.

With his hands constantly moving and his voice wizened, yet enthusiastic, Ross is a picture of quirky passion. There is nothing he hasn't thought about.

"I love vans, I think vans should be the only form of transportation that should exist," Ross said.

Splendida, which also includes drummer Steve Nelson, 30, and bassist Mike Bagesse, 26, as well as the 32-year-old Ross, will play the Third Stone Bar and Grill, 500 N. Fourth Ave., at 11 p.m. Saturday, part of the 48-band Tammies Fall Crawl. The event is just what the Tucson music scene needs, Ross said.

"Playing out in Tucson is sometimes like playing to people in cryogenic suspension," Ross said. "When people do come out it gets going, it gets fun."

No one's ever quite certain just how a Splendida show will turn out. Whether it's Tucson's rustic rebel Al Perry sitting in on guitar or the expert mariachi trumpet of Ruben Moreno, Splendida does run the gamut from good old fashioned rock n' roll like Chuck Berry used to play or a little Tom-Waitsy ballad of loss and redemption, it's all part kitsch and part high art. Postmodern, the way Quentin Tarantino can put a restaurant sign in a frame of film and make you think of Raymond Chandler.

Like Ross and his band would like you to hear Al Green or Frank Sinatra - all with a twist. No, not to sell records, not in hopes of hitting the big time. These guys all have day jobs - they keep the band as a hobby.

"I think we just play because we like to play," Ross said.

But what about the tours, the girls?

The way Ross sees it, Perry laid it all out in his Tucson Weekly column a couple weeks ago.

"Too many bands, and most of em blow dog. Too many CDs by bands that either aren't ready for the studio, or have no fan base ... Too many people involved in music for the wrong reasons," Perry wrote in "Support Local Music: Ha!"

Perry's column, Ross said, "Should be etched in bronze and posted in every artistically oriented venue in the Sonoran desert."

At the same time, Splendida is quick to lend some of its regular Sunday slot at Third Stone to bands that have never played out before, like the group Tongue Dried Sun that played the grunge rock requisite of kids who want to do just that.

Last week, the band Ross calls "The Tongue" covered Alice in Chains "Would?"

"I jumped off on-stage with them and got my Seattle-rock thing off," Ross said "It was hilarious."

In fact, Ross said, one of the more exciting things about the Fall Crawl is the number of relative unknowns playing.

"It's like there's tons of artists struggling to be artists (in Tucson), but there's not a big audience," Ross said, but events like this can help.

In the meantime, Splendida will continue to endeavor to cross the lines of genre whether with belly dancers or with just damn listenable rock.

With a twist.