Lowell “Sly” Dunbar, the Jamaican drummer who reshaped reggae a number of instances over as half of the duo Sly & Robbie, has died. “About seven o’clock this morning I went to wake him up and he wasn’t responding, I known as the physician and that was the information,” Dunbar’s spouse, Thelma, mentioned in a press release to The Jamaica Gleaner in the present day, January 26. She didn’t disclose a explanation for loss of life, however shared that Dunbar had been sick for a while. He was 73.
Dunbar was born in on Could 10, 1952 in Kingston, Jamaica. He made his first on-record look on the title observe from Dave and Ansell Collins’ 1971 album Double Barrel, which reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart. Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare—who died in 2021—first performed collectively within the Revolutionaries, the home band at Kingston’s Channel One Studios. The pair shortly grew to become certainly one of, if not probably the most, sought-after rhythm sections of their day. They performed on traditional reggae data together with Peter Tosh’s Legalize It, the Mighty Diamonds’ Proper Time, and Black Uhuru’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
In 1978, Sly & Robbie toured with the Rolling Stones, and Dunbar put out his debut solo album, Merely Slyman. By the early ’80s, they’d began their very own label, Taxi Data, and, as members of Chris Blackwell’s Compass Level home band, had been backing up the likes of Grace Jones—on her legendary trilogy of Heat Leatherette, Nightclubbing, and Residing My Life—Serge Gainsbourg, Mick Jagger, and Bob Dylan.
Sly & Robbie performed a formative position within the evolution of dancehall in the course of the Nineteen Nineties. The duo created the “Bam Bam” riddim that grew to become the inspiration for the style’s early marquee singles, a few of which, like Chaka Demus & Pliers’ “Homicide She Wrote” and Nardo Ranks’ “Them a Bleach,” in addition they had a hand in producing. Whereas recording their 2001 album Rock Regular, No Doubt requested Sly & Robbie to get behind the boards for a few dancehall-influenced songs, “Hey Child” and “Beneath It All,” which grew to become a few of the band’s largest hits.
Collectively, Dunbar and Shakespeare put out a complete of 30 Sly & Robbie data, the newest of which was 2019’s Sly & Robbie vs. Roots Radics: The Last Battle. They received the Grammy for Greatest Reggae Album (then known as Greatest Reggae Recording) in 1985—the award’s inaugural yr—for his or her work on Black Uhuru’s Anthem, and once more in 1999 for their very own album Pal. 25 years aside, Dunbar had two songs he labored on—Maxi Priest’s “Shut To You,” in 1990, and Omi’s “Cheerleader,” in 2015—go to No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100.
