A Reggae Legend Has Died After Being Found Unresponsive: Sly Dunbar Was 73

Grammy Award-winning reggae drummer Sly Dunbar, who made up half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm duo Sly & Robbie and worked with artists including Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, has died. He was 73.

Dunbar’s wife Thelma announced the musician’s passing at his home in Kingston, Jamaica, on Monday to the Jamaica Gleaner. “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 outlet, noting that her husband had been sick for some time and was being treated by physicians both at home and overseas.

“Yesterday was such a good day for him. He had friends come over to visit him and we all had such a good time,” she continued. “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.”

Born Lowell Fillmore “Sly” Dunbar in Kingston on May 10, 1952, Dunbar got his start at age 15 in a band called the Yardbrooms. His first appearance on a recording was on the Dave and Ansell Collins album Double Barrel, and Dunbar would go on to join the band Skin, Flesh and Bones with Ansell.

In 1972, Dunbar became friends with Robbie Shakespeare, who was the bass guitarist for the Hippy Boys at the time, and they would go on to form the duo Sly & Robbie, playing rhythm on reggae classics by Black Uhuru, Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh.

Sly & Robbie also found acclaim outside of Jamaica, playing on Grace Jones’ albums Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life as well as Dylan’s Infidels, Empire Burlesque and Down in the Groove through the 1980s.

Dunbar also played with the Revolutionaries, the house band for Jamaica’s Channel One studio, and can be heard on Marley’s “Punky Reggae Party” as well as Junior Murvin’s “Police and Thieves,” and Maxi Priest’s “Easy to Love,” among others.

Dunbar was nominated for a Grammy Award 13 times, winning twice when Black Uhuru’s “Anthem” won Best Reggae Recording in 1985 and when Sly & Robbie’s Friends won Best Reggae Album in 1999.

In 1980, Dunbar and Shakespeare co-founded Taxi Records, which became home to artists including Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, Skip Marley, Beenie Man and Red Dragon.

In 1979, fellow musician Brian Eno told Downbeat of Dunbar: “…So when you buy a reggae record, there’s a 90% chance the drummer is Sly Dunbar.”

“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,” Eno continued.