Grammy-winning producer and drummer Sly Dunbar — one half of the Jamaican duo Sly and Robbie — has died aged 73, DancehallMag has confirmed.
Alongside bassist Robbie Shakespeare, who died in 2021, Dunbar formed the most influential rhythm section in Jamaican music history, helping to define the sound of reggae, dub, and dancehall across five decades.
Rory Baker, a producer and recording/mixing engineer for Sly & Robbie’s Taxi Records camp, confirmed Dunbar’s passing on Monday morning while en route to the family’s residence, though he was too distraught to comment further.
“This is a major, major blow for me personally…mi three mentor dem gone back to back now, Robbie, then Cat Coore and now Sly, all of them gone,” Baker said.
Dunbar, whose full name is Lowell Fillmore Dunbar, is survived by his wife Thelma and daughter.
He had been ailing for more than a decade, suffering from chronic problems with his legs and complications stemming from a slipped disc.
Sly Dunbar (right) with Robbie
Producer Albert ‘Burru’ Blackwood, a close friend of Sly Dunbar, called the Grammy-winning musician “one of the finest and best persons one could meet in music and life”.
“He was a great mentor and friend. Sly Dunbar is one of the best person in music because he doesn’t hide information, if there is anything for you to know, he will tell you. Robbie (Shakespeare) bring me into music and Sly start Slam music and gave me my first rhythm,” Blackwood told DancehallMag.
“Both played the first riddim, the Rockfort Rock, Sly played on my Casablanca rhythm. When me down, Sly keep me up, if anything happen to my car, dem man de fix it same time. Many times, I was the one who would pick him up, Nambo and Garfield, and carry them to the airport to go on tour,” he added.
Blackwood said he last spoke to Sly last Friday for about two hours. He called to speak with the family this morning when he heard the news.
“I heard a lot of mourning and weeping, he wasn’t feeling well for about three weeks ago, so I did my crying from that time, but I am really sad right now,” he said.
Dunbar’s career-defining partnership began in 1972, when he met bassist Robbie Shakespeare, then a member of the Hippy Boys. After Shakespeare recommended him to producer Bunny “Striker” Lee, Dunbar began working as a session drummer for Lee’s house band, the Aggrovators. The chemistry between Dunbar and Shakespeare was immediate, and the two soon decided to work as a permanent unit.
They went on to become the backbone of Peter Tosh’s band throughout the 1970s, recording five albums with the former Wailer before parting ways in 1981. Around the same period, Dunbar also played for some of the most important studio bands in Jamaican music history, including Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Upsetters and Joseph “Jo Jo” Hoo Kim’s Revolutionaries, while continuing to record extensively for Bunny Lee and later Barry O’Hare in the 1990s.
Dunbar’s drumming appears on several of the most important recordings in reggae history, including Lee Perry–produced classics such as Max Romeo’s “Night Doctor” and Junior Murvin’s “Police and Thieves,” as well as Bob Marley’s “Punky Reggae Party” 12-inch single.
In 1980, Dunbar and Shakespeare formalized their partnership by launching Taxi Records, which would become one of the most successful and influential labels of the dancehall era. Through Taxi, they released and produced records by Black Uhuru, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Ini Kamoze, Beenie Man, and Red Dragon, among many others, helping to shape the sound of Jamaican popular music through the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1985, Dunbar and Shakespeare won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Recording as producers of Black Uhuru’s Anthem—the first-ever Grammy awarded in the reggae category. Dunbar would go on to receive 13 Grammy nominations in total and a second Grammy in 1999, when Sly & Robbie won Best Reggae Album for Friends.
They recorded with Bob Dylan on his albums Infidels and Empire Burlesque, appeared on three landmark albums by Grace Jones, and worked with artists as diverse as Herbie Hancock, Joe Cocker, Serge Gainsbourg, Simply Red, Yoko Ono, Sinéad O’Connor, and the Rolling Stones.
One of the duo’s crowning achievements was the production of Chaka Demus & Pliers’ 1992 global smash Murder She Wrote. A masterclass in the “power of simplicity,” the instrumental was stripped to the essentials: Robbie’s magnetic bass, Sly’s pulsing drums, and a minimal guitar riff from Lloyd ‘Gitsy’ Willis.
By 2001, Sly & Robbie were veteran producers whose decades of experience made them the perfect collaborators for No Doubt. At Geejam Studios in Jamaica, they helped shape the songs Underneath It All and Hey Baby, and suggested adding Dancehall stars Lady Saw and Bounty Killer. Both songs went on to become No Doubt’s biggest hits at the time, entering the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning two Grammy Awards.
