Lowell Fillmore “Sly” Dunbar, the drumming half of Sly and Robbie and a prominent reggae producer, has died. He was 73. News of his death was confirmed by his wife, Thelma, to The Jamaica Gleaner on Monday.
Sly Dunbar died at 73 years old
Dunbar reportedly died at home on Monday morning, according to his wife Thelma. He had been sick and was being treated both at home and overseas.
“About 7 o’clock this morning, I went to wake him up and he wasn’t responding. I called the doctor and that was the news,” Thelma told The Jamaica Gleaner. “Yesterday was such a good day for him. He had friends come over to visit him and we all had such a good time. He ate well yesterday… sometimes he’s not into food. I knew he was sick… but I didn’t know that he was this sick.”
Singer and songwriter Ali Campbell of UB40 publicly expressed his grief after the news of Dunbar’s death broke.
“Words cannot describe how heartbroken I am to hear of the passing of my friend and legend,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Modern-day beats simply wouldn’t be what they are without the influence of reggae and dancehall riddims that Sly single-handedly pioneered.”
Sly Dunbar was a pioneer of the reggae genre
Born in 1952 in Kingston, Jamaica, Dunbar started playing the drums when he was a child. He joined his first band at 15 years old and later became friends with bassist Robbie Shakespeare. They joined the group the Revolutionaries, which was also known as the Aggrovators, before forming their own duo named Sly and Robbie, according to Deadline.
They eventually released over 30 albums as a duo, the last one being Sly & Robbie vs. Roots Radics: The Final Battle in 2019. Dunbar also released three solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, according to Variety.
Sly and Robbie collaborated with countless musicians, including reggae stars like Lee Perry, Junior Murvin, Jimmy Cliff, and Bob Marley. They also worked with artists such as Bob Dylan, Grace Jones, Herbie Hancock, Serge Gainsbourg, Black Uhuru, No Doubt, Sinéad O’Connor, and the Rolling Stones.
Sly and Robbie established their own Taxi label studio and produced works by Elephant Man, Buju Banton, and remixes for artists like Madonna, Britney Spears, New Order, and Fugees.
Brian Eno famously said in 1979, “When you buy a reggae record, there’s a 90% chance the drummer is Sly Dunbar,” speaking at the New Music New York festival, according to ABC News. “You get the impression that Sly Dunbar is chained to a studio seat somewhere in Jamaica, but in fact what happens is that his drum tracks are so interesting, they get used again and again.”
Dunbar was nominated 13 times at the Grammy Awards and won twice. His first Grammy was in 1985 for producing Black Uhuru’s album Anthem, and the second was in 1999, when he won Best Reggae Album for the Sly and Robbie record Friends.
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