Red ferns
Lowell “Sly” Dunbar exerted the kind of global impact that few achieved. In addition to performing on several landmark reggae and dancehall records, his work with the likes of Bob Dylan and Grace Jones brought his creative skills to a different audience in the international music arena. With his bassist recording and touring partner Robbie Shakespeare (d. 2021), Dunbar also formed the production company Taxi Records, securing a consistent pipeline of both work and entrepreneurial income with prominent reggae acts. However, the exact number of recordings he played on is unknown one estimate cites more than 200,000. Dunbar was awarded Jamaica’s Order of Distinction and the Musgrave Gold Medal in 2015, while he also received the University of Minnesota’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025.
Reggae highlights
Dunbar’s death comes in the wake of recent high-profile transitions in the reggae world. Singer-songwriter Jimmy Cliff died in late November 2025, while the death of veteran Third World guitarist Stephen “Cat” Coore was announced on January 19.
Dunbar had been playing drums professionally since he was a teenager, playing on Dave and Ansil Collins’ single, “Double Barrel,” which unexpectedly topped the British charts in 1971. He was sixteen and remembered that it was made on a simple two-track machine, and that he borrowed a drum kit for the session, as he did not actually own one at the time. He later became part of the influential Aggrovators, produced by Bunny Lee, and Channel One Studios’ Revolutionaries session bands, both of which made recordings that shaped and helped define the roots reggae peak of the 1970s. Working with Shakespeare, he helped develop the dynamic “rockers” rhythmadding syncopation to the dominant ‘one drop’ reggae sound.
LONDON: Sly and Robbie posing in London in 1988. L-R Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare (Photo by Mike Prior/Getty Images)
Red ferns
Dunbar was part of the dynamic rhythm section that supported Black Uhuru’s vocalists in the background National Anthem album released by Island Records that claimed the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Reggae Recording in 1985, although his recordings with the band long preceded that milestone. He co-produced Black Uhuru in 1979 Shop window LP, which included the classic song “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, after which the album was renamed in some territories. Dunbar’s role in collaboration with Shakespeare was so crucial that he also appeared on the color cover of the North American version of the record, with his roles on Simmons’ then-advanced electronic drums noted in bold type.
He was also a member of original Wailers member Peter Tosh’s Word, Sound & Power band, filled with A-list reggae session players, which opened gigs for the Rolling Stones in 1978 when Tosh was signed to the rock veterans’ custom label.
International impact
As part of the session band’s influential recording at Chris Blackwell’s Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, he helped shape Jamaican singer Grace Jones’ emerging pop-crossover sound with her 1981 album. Nightclubs album that creates a different style of international reggae, while retaining the characteristics of heavy bass and dub spaciousness. Jones’ “Walking in the Rain” typified the atmospheric, reggae-influenced soundscapes that took advantage of Dunbar’s broad sonic vocabulary. Both Dunbar and Shakespeare later played critical rhythmic roles in Jones’ vastly underrated film Hurricane album from 2008.
The drummer expressed his disbelief when he and Shakespeare received a phone call inviting the duo to play on Bob Dylan’s Infidels album (1983) with the deeply reflective song ‘I and I’. Dylan had been a musical hero for Dunbar, so performing with him was a new high. The pair also appeared on Dylan’s 1985 release, Empire Burlesque.
Jamaican reggae musicians Robbie Shakespeare, Peter Tosh and Sly Dunbar at Convocation Hall, Toronto, Canada, 1979. (Photo by Peter Noble/Redferns)
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The eclectic versatility of the Sly & Robbie duo spread around the world with their appearances on Japanese guitarist Kazumi Watanabe’s 1984 Mobo album that is a crucial example of many. At the same time, Dunbar and Shakespeare appeared on Mick Jagger’s 1985 solo debut album. She’s the boss.
Unlimited in their creativity, the duo took Taxi Productions into the dancehall era, with hits such as the ubiquitous Chaka Demus & Pliers single ‘Murder She Wrote’, which became a hit in Britain in 1994 and simultaneously charted in many other territories. Are production work affected includes international releases from No Doubt.
Sly Dunbar was able to take influences from other rhythm-oriented genres, including hi-hat cymbal discos, and successfully integrate them into reggae frameworks. The Sly & Robbie duo created a series of eclectic albums for their own Taxi label and other labels including Island, ensuring they would transcend the parameters of reggae while always staying in musical touch with their Jamaican roots. His creative energy and stylistic versatility will be missed inside and outside the reggae world, as evidenced by his thirteen Grammy Award nominations.
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