Sly Dunbar of Sly and Robbie Dead at 73

Lowell Fillmore “Sly” Dunbar, the Jamaican drummer best known for being one half of the famous reggae rhythm section Sly and Robbie, has died at the age of 73.

The news was confirmed via DancehallMag, though further details regarding the circumstances of his passing have not been revealed.

Dunbar, who was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, started playing publicly in bands when he was a teenager.

“I was going to school, and I was playing on the desk in school, and then I started playing on cans,” he recalled to Berklee Online. “Then I told my mom I didn’t want to go back to school at the age of 13.”

Dunbar’s mother allowed him to leave school to pursue his musical talent, though Dunbar noted he never properly learned to play the drums — he learned via listening to records by the likes of Otis Redding, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Sly and the Family Stone and others.

In 1972, he met bassist Robbie Shakespeare, with whom he would continue a musical partnership. Together, they started accepting recording offers from various other bands and artists, including five albums with Peter Tosh of Bob Marley‘s Wailers. In 1980, Sly and Robbie formed their own record label called Taxi Records, releasing albums by a number of other Jamaican bands.

Working With Rock Artists

In addition to their own solo work through the ’80s,’90s and into the 21st century, the duo appeared on countless albums by rock, jazz and pop artists, including but not limited to Bob Dylan‘s Infidels and Empire Burlesque, Mick Jagger‘s She’s the Boss, the Rolling Stones‘ Undercover (at one point, Sly and Robbie opened for the Rolling Stones on tour), Joe Cocker‘s Sheffield Steel, Serge Gainsbourg’s Negusa Nagast, Jackson Browne‘s World in Motion, Yoko Ono‘s Starpeace, Carly Simon‘s Hello Big Man, Sinead O’Connor‘s Throw Down Your Arms and many others.

Even with the number of artists coming to Sly and Robbie for their talent, Dunbar noted in interviews over the years that he never felt as though anyone was stealing away their sound.

“A lot of people said ‘they’re taking our music,’ but I never think of that,” he said to Berklee Online. “To us we know it’s reggae, and so we felt good to know somebody is liking what we’re doing and coming in and doing covers, using our beat, and everything.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Reggae Rock Songs

Dunbar was a 13-time Grammy-nominee and the winner of two of those awards. His musical partner Shakespeare passed away in 2021.

When asked in a 2020 interview what he’d like to be remembered for, Dunbar replied: “Making some great records, being in some great groups, playing some nice drum patterns, starting reggae all over. Just because I’ve been reading that what I’m playing makes you just want to dance, you just want to get to the club, this is what I’m all about. To make people dance.”