biography
Spider Webb (born Kenneth Ronald Rice; June 15, 1944) is an American jazz drummer and session musician. A major influence in the new rhythms of today’s music is the unique drum style of Spider Webb. His inventive playing is being heard on hit records, concerts and TV shows by featured Jazz and R&B artists around the world.
Spider Webb began playing drums at an early age in his hometown of Detroit Michigan USA, which is the birthplace of many great musicians and Motown Records. Spider recorded with United Artists and Holland-Dozier-Holland in his early teens. He then moved to New York in 1967 where he quickly gained prominence as a studio drummer and was hired on the spot by the late great recording artist King Curtis and the Kingpins. The Detroit rebellion in 1968 brought Spider back to Detroit during several breaks from work in New York, and while there was part of the recording of hit singles Cloud Nine and Runaway Child Running Wild for The Temptations and Band of Gold for Freda Payne.
The next high point in his career was when he became the drummer for Harry Belafonte, from 1969 through 1971, which included extensive engagements and two albums. Spider moved to Los Angeles later in 1971 to work with famed Jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo, David T. Walker, and Los Angeles studio session work with all the major record companies included work with The Commodores, Eddie Kendricks, Roberta Flack, Carmen McRae, Herb Alpert, Robert Palmer, Etta James, Bobby Lyle (Sly & The Family Stone), Albert King, and Grover Washington Jr.
Another important achievement came after joining David Clayton Thomas featuring the Sanctuary Band, winning the Seventh Annual International Song Festival in Rio De Janiero in 1972 and on two albums.
In 1974, Spider performed at the first Kool Jazz Festival with Sonny Stitt (alto sax), Sonny Burke (piano), Kenny Burrell (guitar), and Chuck Rainey (bass).
In 1979, Spider moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he began to write, produce, and arrange music more and more. After completing several projects in the Denver area, Spider decided to return to doing live performances. In June of 1980, he toured again with Harry Belafonte. Three television specials were done at that time, one in Cuba, filmed by the Canadian Broadcasting Company, the second in Jamaica, and the third in Munich, Germany, filmed by a German television network. He performed with Esther Phillips at many Jazz clubs in the New York and Washington, DC areas, and at the Berne Jazz Festival in Berne, Switzerland in 1981.
Spider then returned to New York and began working with various groups and artists, including Letta Mbulu and close friend, songwriter, and arranger Jimmy A. Smith.
Spider has since returned to Detroit working on different projects with many artists, including Martha Reeves, The Funk Brothers, Marcus Belgrave, and Rodney Whitaker.
