Sly Dunbar, Reggae and Dancehall’s Rhythm King, Dead at 73

Sly Dunbar, the legendary Jamaican drummer who helped steer reggae‘s modern evolution while providing the backbeat to countless recordings, has died. He was 73.

Dunbar’s wife, Thelma, confirmed his death to Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner. “About seven o’clock this morning I went to wake him up and he wasn’t responding, I called the doctor and that was the news,” she said. An exact cause of death was not given, though Dunbar had reportedly been ill for some time. 

“Yesterday was such a good day for him,” Thelma said. “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.”

Dunbar was just 15 when he joined his first band and recorded his initial song. It marked the start of a prolific and deeply influential career, with Dunbar earning worldwide acclaim for his work alongside bassist Robbie Shakespeare (who died in 2021). It’s been estimated that, over the decades, Sly and Robbie played on more than 200,000 recordings, including the original tracks, remixes, and the numerous songs that have sampled their work.

As the rhythm section (and production duo) Sly and Robbie, the pair played on reggae classics by Black Uhuru, Jimmy Cliff, and Peter Tosh, developing a reputation that would garner them work with the likes of Bob Dylan, Grace Jones, and the Rolling Stones. Sly and Robbie also released numerous albums of their own, and played a crucial role in pushing reggae into the future with their adoption of electronic instruments and more syncopated rhythms. 

Lowell Fillmore Dunbar was born May 10, 1952 in Kingston, Jamaica. Dunbar, in a 2021 interview, credited his sisters with filling his childhood home with Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MGs, and Sly and the Family Stone (it was his love for the latter than led to him being nicknamed “Sly”). But Dunbar was inspired to become a drummer after hearing Lloyd Knibb play with the Skatalites. Before he had a kit of his own, he played on his desk at school, as well as cans. At the age of 13, he successfully convinced his mother to let him abandon school to pursue music. 

Dunbar’s first gig was with a band called the Yardbrooms, while his first recording session took place with Lee “Scratch” Perry and his backing band the Upsetters, during which they cut, “Night Doctor.” In 1969, Dunbar played on the album Double Barrel by Dave and Ansell Collins, with the song’s hit title-track going to Number One in the U.K.

In 1973, Shakespeare saw Dunbar play at a nightclub and was immediately taken with his prowess. He recommended Dunbar for a studio session, and the pair hit it off. “The first time we played together I think it was magic,” Dunbar said in 2009. “We locked into that groove immediately. I listen to him and he listens to me. We try to keep it simple.”

Soon, Dunbar and Shakespeare were playing with the Revolutionaries, the house band for Jamaica’s Channel One studio, while also touring and recording with Tosh. Additionally, the so-called Riddim Twins formed their own production company, Taxi, and spent the Seventies working with major reggae acts like Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, and Barrington Levy. A big part of their success was their pioneering of the “rockers” rhythm, which allowed them to inject more syncopation and energy into the already popular and omnipresent “one drop” rhythm.

Aside from Shakespeare, Dunbar played on some of the most lauded songs in the genre’s history, including Junior Murvin’s “Police and Thieves” and Bob Marley’s “Punky Reggae Party.”

In 2021, Dunbar explained how the rockers beat was partly inspired by all the funk and disco he and Shakespeare were listening to during the late Seventies, as well as their tour with Tosh (opening for the Rolling Stones) in 1978. During that run, Dunbar said, the pair “discovered our fears, and we had to change and try to get some energy in reggae because the one drop was a bit light playing indoors in a big arena, a big stadium… When we come back to Jamaica, now, we started experimenting with the open snare thing with the Black Uhuru, and the snare came alive.” 

That more energetic sound defined Sly and Robbie’s work with Black Uhuru, with whom they linked in the late Seventies as both rhythm section and producers. With Sly and Robbie’s backing, Black Uhuru released several successful albums, including Red, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and Anthem, which won the inaugural Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 1985.

Black Uhuru’s success also led to greater recognition — and more work — for Sly and Robbie, as both producers and session musicians. They worked on several albums with Jones, including her 1981 genre-smashing classic, Nightclubbing, and played on three Dylan records, including 1983’s Infidels. They also recorded with Mick Jagger, the Stones, Yoko Ono, Jackson Browne, Joe Cocker, Ian Dury, and Carly Simon. Sly and Robbie released several albums of their own, too, including 1987’s seminal Rhythm Killers. 

During the Eighties, Dunbar started incorporating electronic drums and samplers into his work. Speaking at a Red Bull Music Academy lecture in 2008, Dunbar said most Jamaican drummers were “scared” of drum machines, while he found them fascinating. “I just want to make beats and it’s cool to sit and program something you’re feeling,” he said. “But most drummers won’t program anything. Out of all of them, I’m the only one who’ll program. They think they don’t need it, they’re great drummers, and nobody would ask them to program. It’s another way of recording, so I wanted to get into it.”

With this new technology, Dunbar also helped usher reggae’s evolution into dancehall. While the genre had been bubbling up for several years, in the early Nineties, Sly and Robbie created the wildly influential Bam Bam riddem with just a guitar loop and Banghra-influenced programmed drums (there’s no bass on the track). The riddim served as the foundation for several early dancehall hits, including Chaka Demus and Pliers’ “Bam Bam” and “Murder She Wrote, “as well as Nardo Ranks’ “Them a Bleach.” 

Sly and Robbie went on to make more dancehall hits with artists like Shabba Ranks, Simply Red, Cutty Ranks, and Beenie Man. They also continued their wide-ranging production work, partnering with artists like No Doubt, Sinéad O’Connor, and Marianne Faithful. In 1999, Sly and Robbie won their second Grammy for Best Reggae Album, this time taking home the prize for their own LP Friends. 

Speaking in 2012, Dunbar summed up his approach to drumming, tying it back to his endless curiosity and desire to always be innovating .“When I see the red light, I go for it,” he said. “I take chances and have a different thing.

“I try to be different but I’m not putting down other drummers because I respect all drummers and look up to them a lot,” he added. “But I think for me to come to the marketplace and make a statement I have to find something that people will like and people will enjoy, so I’m always on the searching side of things. I’m still searching, I’m looking, I listen every day for ideas.”