Reggae legend Sly Dunbar who played with Bob Marley, Madonna & The Rolling Stones tragically found dead aged 73
REGGAE legend Sly Dunbar, who performed with the likes of Bob Marley, Madonna and the Rolling Stones, has died aged 73.
The iconic Jamaican drummer, who also co-founded production duo Sly and Robbie, was found dead on Monday according to his wife.
The star played on tracks such as Bob Marley’s Punky Reggae Party and Dave and Ansell Collins’ classic hit Double Barrel.
But he was better known for his work as one half of iconic production team Sly & Robbie.
The duo produced popular tracks for industry giants including Bob Dylan, Grace Jones and Ian Dury, and reggae stars like Peter Tosh and Black Uhuru.
His wife Thelma told local media she found him unresponsive on Monday, before his death was also confirmed by his team.
Sly, whose real name was Lowell Fillmore Dunbar, was born in Kingston, Jamaica.
He started out playing on tin cans – getting inspiration from Lloyd Knibbs and the Skatalites on television.
The star previously said in a 1997 interview: “I saw [Knibbs] playing and I thought, ‘I want to be a drummer’ because he’s the hardest worker in the band.
“He’s my idol! In some ways, I’m self-taught but I got a lot of help from other drummers by watching them play.”
When he was a teenager, he founded the rhythm section of the band the Revolutionaries alongside bassist Robbie Shakespeare, who died in 2021.
They became one of the most renowned backing bands in Jamaican reggae in the 1970s.
Sly became known for his shuffling “rockers” drum pattern, which put more emphasis on syncopation and energy.
Throughout the decade they also worked with major reggae acts like Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and Barrington Levy.
The rhythm section also toured in the US with Peter Tosh.
In the hopes of saving enough cash to found their own production team, the pair lived on bread and water during this period, according to legend.
They founded Taxi Records in 1980, before helping a whole new generation of Jamaican artists such as Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, Skip Marley, Beenie Man and Red Dragon refine their art.
The pair also provided beats on Grace Jones’s hit 1981 album Nightclubbing.
This paved the way for them to work with some of rock and pop’s biggest stars – from Bob Dylan and Joe Cocker, to singers like Marianne Faithfull, Madonna and Sinead O’Connor.
Sly’s heartbroken wife told local media: “I went to wake him up and he wasn’t responding, I called the doctor and that was the news.
His exact cause of death is unknown, but he is understood to have been ill for an extended period of time.
“Yesterday was such a good day for him,” Thelma told Jamaica’s Gleaner newspaper.
“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.”
She added: “I knew he was sick… but I didn’t know that he was this sick.”
Tributes poured in for the late musician, with British DJ David Rodigan, calling him a “true icon” and “one of the greatest drummers of all time”.