IT was three years ago that Patricia Carty-Edwards, lead singer for the Montego Bay-based female trio Ebony, and the other members of the group had an official reunion party at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston. However, in October of last year, Carty-Edwards decided to again separate herself from the group.

The Ebony Sisters with Connie Edwards, Patricia Carty-Edwards and Claudette Miller-Robinson started in the 70s. After 18 years together the group broke up, only to reunited six years later.

Miller-Robinson was quoted in a 2006 Observer story as saying, “We all feel that our mission to sing and woo audiences is not complete. We believe there is so much more to contribute to the music industry, so when we met and discussed the idea, the decision was unanimous.”

In that same article Edwards also echoed “… we are always bombarded with questions from our fans as to when are we planning to hit the stage again and there are so many who constantly encourage us, so the decision wasn’t a difficult one.”

So the question is, what could have gone wrong in such a short time? “What led to the separations is something that is internal… extremely personal. I don’t really want to talk about that,” was Carty-Edwards’ terse response. Then she added; “After six years, I had forgiven… and decided to put everything behind and try again. But now I realised that things haven’t changed, and I just decided to go on my merry way.”

A far cry from the tone she used when speaking of the group’s first separation a decade ago. On that occasion, the following quote was attributed to Carty-Edwards: “We have had our differences, but we never dwell on anything, as we learnt to tolerate each other.”

When contacted, Miller-Robinson stated: “I don’t know if I want to talk about this… she (Carty-Edwards) may want to make a solo career. I don’t know if this is a conversation I want to have.”

She further stated that Carty-Edwards has been replaced by Marsha Scott-Hines.

Ebony began singing under the stewardship of Weston Haughton as their choreographer/artistic director. Despite one self-titled album and some singles over the years, the trio never really had a hit song or what could be called a signature tune.

“Ebony is more known as a live stage act. We have an album, we did some singles before the album, but we never had a hit song,” Miller-Robinson admitted.

Nevertheless, it is to their credit that they have had their fair share of tours and that their claim to fame is having performed with top international acts such as Freddie Jackson, The Manhattans, Ben E King, Jeffrey Osborne, James Ingram, Gladys Knight, Regina Belle, and New Edition.