Session Drummers in Detroit: Andrew Smith and Spider Webb

Andrew Louis Smith first came to Motown when Hank Cosby suggested he play on a Stevie Wonder recording session, probably around 1968, when Smith was still in his teens. He may have been used subsequently to double on drums, simply to make the sound heavier or to provide cover for any weaknesses in Benny Benjamin’s delivery. Sadly, these contributions remain uncredited, although some fans have tried to analyse differences in Smith’s style of playing when compared with Benny Benjamin or Uriel Jones or Richard “Pistol” Allen. This has led to suggestions that it might have been Smith playing on Edwin Starr’s “25 Miles” in 1969. His first credits appear in 1971, when he played on several tracks on three albums: the Undisputed Truth’s “Face To Face With The Truth”, the Temptations’ “Solid Rock”, and Valerie Simpson’s album “Exposed”. The following year saw Smith playing drums on three more albums: The Four Tops’ “Nature Planned It”, the Temptations’ “All Directions” and the Supremes’ “Floy Joy”. In 1973, he played on the recordings for the Undisputed Truth’s album “Law Of The Land” and the Temptation’s album “Masterpiece”.

Prior to his work at Motown, Smith had been a session drummer at Golden World, where he met Bob Babbitt and Dennis Coffey. (Bob Babbitt describes his reaction to hearing Smith play on his website: “Wow. Young Genius”). In 1969, he was a member of the Lyman Woodard Trio, with Woodard and Bob Babbitt, which became the Dennis Coffey Trio. The result was an album, “Hair And Thangs”, released on the Californian label Maverick Records in 1969. During the same year, he became a member of Scorpion, with Ray Monette, Bob Babbitt and Mike Campbell. They released one album entitled “Scorpion”, on the Tower label. The recording was probably made at Tera Schirma Studios in Detroit, with Ralph Terrana the sound engineer. Smith later played on sessions at Holland, Dozier, Holland’s Tower Studios for Ruth Copeland’s “Self Portrait” album and on many other Invictus/ Hot Wax sessions. He also played drums on two Dennis Coffey albums.

When Motown went west, Andrew Smith went east, along with Bob Babbitt. They developed a strong partnership and Smith was able to exploit his musical abilities. His list of credits includes songwriting, arranging, producing, leading and conducting, as well as playing drums, bass, guitar and percussion. In 1973, Smith and Babbitt found themselves in a studio in New York with some old friends from Motown. They were members of the session band who recorded “Midnight Train To Georgia” with Gladys Knight & the Pips for Buddah Records, which hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles and the Billboard R&B Singles Charts and earned a Grammy Award. In 1974, Smith and Babbitt went to Philadelphia in search of work. They can be heard on the Thom Bell song “The Rubberband Man” by the Spinners and several more well-known hits! Twenty years later, after hundreds of sessions for many well-known artists, he was still in demand. In 1980, an album of Smith film scores was released on Major Records.

Andrew Smith died on April 27th, 2000 in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

Spider Webb was the professional name of Jazz-drummer Kenneth Rice. He was a native of Detroit, although he was based in New York from 1967 to 1969. In the summer of 1969 he came to play in the Motown studios for the recording of the Temptations’ albums “Puzzle People” and “Psychedelic Shack”. Most important of all, though, was his drumming on the Temptations’ “Cloud Nine”, for which he doubled up with Uriel Jones. Webb also worked with Grover Washington Jr, Herb Alpert, Aretha Franklin, Robert Palmer and many other well-known performers.