Ebonee Webb

Ebonee Webb was an American soul-funk band from Memphis that cut five singles for Hi Records as Ebony Web. In Japan, the band made two disco albums in 1978/79 on the Seven Seas label. Back in the US, they signed with Capitol for the 1981–83 albums Ebonee Webb and Too Hot.

Members: Charles Liggins, Chico, Gregg Davis, Kenneth Ray Coleman, Leon Thomas, Michael Winston, Ronald Coleman, Roy Munn Jr., Thomas Brown

Background

The group that became Ebonee Webb started in South Memphis as the Del-Rays, a teenage band based at George Washington Carver High School. Their early lineup centered on guitarist Willie McClain, drummer Curtis Steel, and bassist Ray Griffin, with singer Charles Liggins and keyboardist Perry Michael Allen among the additional members. 

The Del-Rays played Memphis clubs and event halls, including the Hippodrome, a Beale Street roller rink and music venue with earlier ties to the Chitlin’ Circuit. Meanwhile, Allen studied recording and arranging under veteran bandleader Willie Mitchell, the vice-president of Hi Records and the owner of Royal Studios, the South Lauderdale Street facility used for 1969/70 albums by Al Green and Ike & Tine Turner.

Ebony Web: Hi Records, 1970–73

Mitchell brought the Del-Rays into Royal and renamed them Ebony Web to avoid confusion with prior unrelated acts under the Del-Rays name, including the recent Mascoutah, Illinois, quintet with a young Michael McDonald.

Ebony Web debuted with the May 1970 Hi single “Think About It” (b/w “Mister Man”), both group-written numbers followed in November with “The Time of Me,” an Allen original backed with “Games,” another group-credited piece.

By May 1971, Allen and Griffin remained in Ebony Web alongside guitarist Robert Thomas, trumpeter Ronald Coleman, drummer Terry Johnson, and saxophonist Michael Winston. Allen led the sextet when it joined a WDIA Goodwill Revue bill that June with Ray Charles, Rufus Thomas, Joe Simon, and Chairmen of the Board. Robert Thomas wrote their third Hi a-side, “This Morning,” released in August 1971 with the group-written “Find Yourself.”

In July 1972, Ebony Web returned with “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” a Temptations cover backed with the reused “This Morning.” They closed their Hi run with the May 1973 single “I’ll Still Be Loving You,” a Mad Lads cover backed with their 1970 cut “Think About It.”

In 1973, Ebony Web replaced Con Funk Shun as the road band for the Soul Children. The group also backed the Sweet Inspirations on the 1973 Stax album Estelle, Myrna and Sylvia, which credits the Hi-era sextet of Allen, Coleman, Griffin, Johnson, Thomas, and Winston. Ebony Web left Hi that autumn and moved into the Stax orbit, while Allen remained with Willie Mitchell at Royal Studios. 

1975–80: Stax, Japan, and Capitol

In 1975, Griffin and Johnson played on the Rance Allen Group album A Soulful Experience at Stax Recording Studios. The Stax foreclosure at the end of that year removed the label base for the group. Griffin relinquished band leadership to concentrate on session work while Ebony Web continued as a self-contained club act. On February 20, 1976, they supported R&B belter Big Ella at Curries Club Manhattan.

The band backed Rufus Thomas on a short 1977 African tour and continued with the singer to Japan, where audience response prompted repeat engagements at Mugen, a prominent live go-go club in Tokyo’s Akasaka district. Their management reorganized the group under the Ebonee Webb spelling with Charles Liggins, the earlier Del-Rays singer.

At Mugen, Ebonee Webb met Japanese arranger Chikara Ueda, who linked the band to King Records. The company placed them with producer Motohiko Takawa for Disco Otomisan, issued in 1978 on the Seven Seas imprint.

Disco Otomisan retained Winston, Brown, and Liggins from the touring group alongside new keyboardist Gregory Davis, drummer Donald Roby, bassist Glynn Flowers, and singer–keyboardist Patricia Henderson. Ueda arranged a program of Western pop songs and Japanese material. King issued the title track as a single in November 1978; “Disco Otomisan” reached No. 30 on the Oricon chart and remained ranked for 15 weeks.

Meanwhile, erstwhile Stax songwriter David Porter developed Kilo for the revived label. Kilo teamed three Ebony Web alumni — keyboardist Perry Michael Allen, bassist Ray Griffin, and drummer/percussionist Terry Royce Johnson — with former Temprees singer–percussionist Jasper “Jabbo” Phillips and guitarist Wendell P. Moore. Kilo issued a self-titled Stax album in 1979 and toured behind “Ring My Bell” hitmaker Anita Ward.

In 1979, Ebonee Webb cut their second Seven Seas album, Memphis Soul Meets Japanese Folk Songs, comprising eight adapted Japanese folk songs performed by the Otomisan lineup with added saxophonist Jake H. Concepcion.

Back in Memphis, Ebonee Webb supplied instrumental backing on the self-titled 1980 EMI-America album by Kwick; the credits identified the players collectively as the Memphis Rhythm Section. The session connected Ebonee Webb with Unisound Productions, the Memphis company formed in 1979 by Allen Jones, longtime producer and manager for the Bar-Kays. Unisound secured a worldwide Capitol deal for Ebonee Webb in 1980, with Jones assigned as producer.

Discography:

• Ebonee Webb (1981)
• Too Hot (1983)