Sly Dunbar, Jamaican drummer who played with reggae and rock greats, dead at 73

Two-time Grammy Award-winning reggae drummer Sly Dunbar, who fuelled countless tracks from Bob Marley to Bob Dylan and was one-half of the influential reggae rhythm section Sly and Robbie, has died. He was 73.

Dunbar’s wife, Thelma, announced the death to the Jamaica Gleaner.

Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare — Sly and Robbie, also known as the Riddim Twins — played on reggae classics by Black Uhuru, Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh and would garner attention far from Jamaica, from the likes of Grace Jones and the Rolling Stones.

Sly and Robbie played on three of Jones’s albums — Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life — as well as four albums by Serge Gainsbourg and three by Dylan, 1983’s Infidels, 1985’s Empire Burlesque and 1988’s Down in the Groove.

“Words cannot describe how heartbroken I am to hear of the passing of my friend and legend,” singer Ali Campbell of UB40 posted on Facebook. “Modern day beats simply wouldn’t be what they are without the influence of reggae and dancehall riddims that Sly single-handedly pioneered.”

Others paying tribute online included Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones. Sly and Robbie played on the band’s 1983 album, Undercover, as well as Mick Jagger’s 1985 solo album, She’s the Boss.

WATCH | Sly and Robbie collaborate with reggae singer Luciano:

Nominated for 13 Grammys

Dunbar played with the Revolutionaries, the house band for Jamaica’s Channel One studio, while also touring, and played on Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves, Maxi Priest’s Easy to Love, Dave and Ansell Collins’s classic instrumental Double Barrel and Marley’s Punky Reggae Party.

Nominated 13 times for a Grammy, Dunbar won twice — when Black Uhuru’s Anthem nabbed the inaugural Grammy for best reggae recording in 1985 and when Sly and Robbie’s Friends won best reggae album in 1999.

In 1980, Sly and Robbie co-founded Taxi Records, which has nurtured such artists as Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, Skip Marley, Beenie Man and Red Dragon.

“When you buy a reggae record, there’s a 90 per cent chance the drummer is Sly Dunbar,” producer Brian Eno told the New Music New York festival in 1979. “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.”

Outside of the genre, Dunbar collaborated with a range of artists including Joe Cocker, No Doubt, Sinead O’Connor and Carly Simon.