Tiny Webb

Tiny Webb (also Big Tiny Webb) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues guitarist.

Active mostly as a session musician from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, he worked with many popular jazz and R&B musicians of the time, including Lloyd Glenn, Maxwell Davis, Velma Middleton, Ray Charles, and Eddie Williams And His Brown Buddies.

He was involved in around 40 recording sessions between 1945 and 1954.

Tiny Webb was born Mitchell Webb. He got the nickname "Tiny" as a joke because of his rather large size.

Early recordings

Tiny Webb began his professional music career in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1940s, playing with Happy Johnson, Jesse Perry, Duke Henderson, Dorothy Donegan, Hadda Brooks, Sylvester Mike, Lowell Fulson, and Johnny Crawford.

In 1948, Webb played guitar on a cover version of "Bewildered" (Bullet Records) for the Red Miller Trio alongside Lloyd Glenn (piano), Ralph Hamilton (bass), and Robert Harvey (drums). "Bewildered" is a popular song written in 1936 by Teddy Powell and Leonard Whitcup and made famous in 1938 by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra. Miller Trio's version of "Bewildered" reached number 1 on the R&B chart in December 1948 and stayed there for five weeks. For a few days of those five weeks, it was tied with Amos Milburn's version of that same song.

Another of Webb's recordings from 1948 was Velma Middleton's "Big Mama's Back In Town" accompanied by bassist Arvell Shaw and drummer Cozy Cole.

Webb first gained recognition in 1948, playing guitar on Jimmy Witherspoon's recording of "Miss Clawdy B" alongside Maxwell Davis and Buddy Floyd (tenor saxophone); Frank Sleet (alto saxophone); Milburn Newman (baritone saxophone); Vernon "Geechie" Smith (trumpet); Jay McShann (piano); Ralph Hamilton (bass); and Jesse Sailes (drums).

In 1949, Webb formed his band, Tiny Webb & His Guitar, and recorded two rhythm and blues tracks—"Billboard Special" and "Tiny's Down Home" (Modern Records).

Around that time, Webb also recorded with pianist Ray Charles' The McSon Trio and "Bumps" Meyers Sextet.

With The McSon Trio (1949)

• Tracks: "Confession Blues", "Blues Before Sunrise", "How Long Blues", "A Sentimental Blues" and "You'll Never Miss The Water" (the last two written by Rod Andre)
• Musicians: Gosady McGee (guitar), Ray Charles (piano), and Ralph Hamilton (bass)
• Comments: "Confession Blues" was the first hit single by Ray Charles to reach the charts; it entered the Billboard Retail Rhythm & Blues Records at number 11 in early April 1949, peaking at number 5 in May 1949. The song was grounded in the style of Nat King Cole and Charles Brown.

With "Bumps" Meyers Sextet (1949)

• Tracks: "Annie Laurie" and "Bumpin' With Bumps" (co-written by John Blackburn) (1949).

In 1949, Webb joined Eddie Williams And His Brown Buddies with drummer Ellis Walsh, and pianist/singer Floyd Dixon. With the Buddies, Webb was heard on a few recordings, including "You Need Me Now" and "Prairie Dog Hole" (written by Mark Hurley) on Supreme Records. In March 1950, the group appeared at the big Easter Promenade Show sponsored by the Los Angeles Sentinel, a free-to-the-public celebration of the Black Community in the greater Los Angeles area. Webb left Eddie's group around 1950 and was replaced by another guitarist named Edgar Rice.

Webb's next work was in 1952 with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Jackson's All-Stars band's recordings of "Honkin" and "Stompin", accompanied by Bill Hadnott (bass), Al (Cake) Wichard (drums), and Devonia Williams (piano). The two songs were written by Julius Jeramiah Bihari (of the Bihari Brothers, the founders of Modern Records in Los Angeles).

In his short career, he also worked with Betty Hall Jones, Sonny Knight, Little Willie Littlefield, Helen Humes, Earl Bostic, Bumble Bee Slim, Crown Prince Waterford, Peppermint Harris, and the doo-wop duo Marvin Phillips & Johnny Perry

Webb's last known recording was "Advice For Men Only" (written by Percy Mayfield) in 1954 for Maxwell Davis Orchestra with Charles H. Waller (baritone saxophone), George "Red" Callender (bass), Lee Young (drums), Willard McDaniel (piano), and Jack McVea (tenor saxophone).

Webb, who weighed around 330 lbs, died at a young age due to obesity.

• Tom Lord: The Jazz Discography
• Roy Porter: There and back. Oxford: Bayou Press 1995, p. 140.