Sly Dunbar
Encyclopedia
Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston
, Jamaica
) is a drummer
.
was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone
, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence
, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen. His recording
debut was in 1969, when he appeared on an album, Double Barrel, by Dave and Ansell Collins
. Dunbar subsequently continued to play with Ansell Collins in a band, Skin, Flesh and Bones.
Meeting Robbie Shakespeare in 1972, then playing the bass guitar
for The Hippy Boys
, Dunbar began a lifelong friendship. When Shakespeare was asked to recommend a drummer for a recording session for producer Bunny Lee
's The Aggrovators
, he remembered Dunbar. Following the session, Dunbar and Shakespeare agreed to keep working together. Their first break came when they accompanied Peter Tosh
on his album, Legalize It
(1976). The duo continued to play with Tosh's band until 1979, recording four additional albums — Equal Rights
, Bush Doctor
, Mystic Man
and Wanted Dread and Alive
and producing Tosh's hit duet
with Mick Jagger
, "(Keep On Walking) Don't Look Back)" (1978).
Working together with Robbie Shakespeare, Sly and Robbie
are considered one of the world's premier rhythm section
s for their work in the field of reggae
. In 2001, Dunbar recalled that The Mighty Diamonds
' song "Right Time" was particularly tricky, evoking both skepticism and imitation: "When that tune first come out, because of that double tap on the rim nobody believe it was me on the drums, they thought it was some sort of sound effect we was using. Then when it go to number 1 and stay there, everybody started trying for that style and it soon become established." According to The Independent
, the entire album Right Time
was "revolutionary", the breakthrough album of "masters of groove and propulsion" Dunbar and Shakespeare, with "Sly's radical drumming matching the singers' insurrectionary lyrics blow-for-blow."
Dunbar and Shakespeare formed their Taxi Records label
in 1980. It has seen releases from many international successful artists
, including Black Uhuru
, Chaka Demus and Pliers, Ini Kamoze
, Beenie Man
and Red Dragon
.
Dunbar played for The Aggrovators
for Bunny Lee; The Upsetters
for Lee Perry, The Revolutionaries
for Joseph Hoo Kim
, and recorded
for Barry O'Hare in the 1990s.
Sly and Robbie also played on Bob Dylan
's albums Infidels
and Empire Burlesque
(using recordings
from the Infidels sessions
). Other sessions
include their appearance on three Grace Jones
albums, and work with Herbie Hancock
, Joe Cocker, Serge Gainsbourg
and The Rolling Stones
.
In 2008 Sly Dunbar collaborated with Larry McDonald
, the Jamaican percussionist, on his long awaited debut album "Drumquestra" for Executive Producer Malik Al Nasir
and his "MCPR Music" label in Dubai. The album featured Toots Hibbert
, Bongo Herman
, Steel Pulse
producer Sidney Mills
Sticky Thompson from The Wailers and Dollarman
from The Easy Star All-Stars
. Sly Dunbar performed in an orchestra of drummers; conceived by Executive Producer Malik Al Nasir
and Larry McDonald, which Larry described as a "Drumquestra". The album was recorded live in the Harry J Studio in Kingston Jamaica and mixed at Wyclef Jean
's Platinum Sound Recording Studios
in New York, by Serge Tsai.
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
) is a drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
.
Biography
Dunbar, whose nicknameNickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone
Sly & the Family Stone
Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music...
, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen. His recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
debut was in 1969, when he appeared on an album, Double Barrel, by Dave and Ansell Collins
Dave and Ansell Collins
Dave and Ansell Collins were a Jamaican vocal/instrumental duo .-History:...
. Dunbar subsequently continued to play with Ansell Collins in a band, Skin, Flesh and Bones.
Meeting Robbie Shakespeare in 1972, then playing the bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
for The Hippy Boys
The Hippy Boys
The Hippy Boys was formed in 1968 by Lloyd Charmers. The band included guitarist Alva "Reggie" Lewis, organist Glen Adams and brothers Aston 'Family Man' Barrett on bass guitar and Carlton Barrett drums respectively....
, Dunbar began a lifelong friendship. When Shakespeare was asked to recommend a drummer for a recording session for producer Bunny Lee
Bunny Lee
Edward O'Sullivan Lee, better known as Bunny "Striker" Lee is a prominent, prolific and successful record producer best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
's The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators were a dub/reggae backing band in the 1970s & 1980s, and one of the main session bands of producer, Bunny Lee. The line-up varied, with Lee using the name for whichever set of musicians he was using at any time. The band's name derived from the record shop that Lee had run in the...
, he remembered Dunbar. Following the session, Dunbar and Shakespeare agreed to keep working together. Their first break came when they accompanied Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh, born Winston Hubert McIntosh , was a Jamaican reggae musician who was a core member of the band The Wailers , and who afterward had a successful solo career as well as being a promoter of Rastafari.Peter Tosh was born in Grange Hill, Jamaica, an illegitimate child to a mother too young...
on his album, Legalize It
Legalize It
Legalize It is an album by Peter Tosh. It was his debut album as a solo artist. The album was recorded at Treasure Isle and Randy's, Kingston, Jamaica in 1975 and released in 1976....
(1976). The duo continued to play with Tosh's band until 1979, recording four additional albums — Equal Rights
Equal Rights (album)
Equal Rights is an album by Peter Tosh. It was released in 1977 .-Track listing:All Songs by Peter Tosh except "Stepping Razor" by Joe Higgs#"Get Up, Stand Up" – 3:29 #"Downpressor Man" – 6:25...
, Bush Doctor
Bush Doctor
Bush Doctor is an album by Peter Tosh. It was released in 1978.A British record retailer banned the album upon its release because of a scratch-n-sniff sticker on its cover, that apparently smelled of ganja .-Track listing:...
, Mystic Man
Mystic Man
Mystic Man is an album by Peter Tosh. All songs were composed by Peter Tosh. It was released in 1979 .-Track listing:All tracks composed by Peter Tosh#"Mystic Man"#"Recruiting Soldiers"#"Can't You See"#"Jah Seh No" #"Fight On"...
and Wanted Dread and Alive
Wanted Dread and Alive
Wanted Dread And Alive is an album by Peter Tosh. It was released in 1981 in two different versions; one for USA and one for Europe . Reissued by Capitol in 2002 with bonus tracks...
and producing Tosh's hit duet
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
with Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, "(Keep On Walking) Don't Look Back)" (1978).
Working together with Robbie Shakespeare, Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie is the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production team of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare who joined in the mid 1970s after having established themselves separately in Jamaica as professional musicians...
are considered one of the world's premier rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
s for their work in the field of reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
. In 2001, Dunbar recalled that The Mighty Diamonds
The Mighty Diamonds
Mighty Diamonds are a Jamaican harmony trio, recording roots reggae with a strong Rastafarian influence. The group, which comprised Donald "Tabby" Shaw, Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson, and Lloyd "Judge" Ferguson, was formed in 1969, and remains together as of 2010...
' song "Right Time" was particularly tricky, evoking both skepticism and imitation: "When that tune first come out, because of that double tap on the rim nobody believe it was me on the drums, they thought it was some sort of sound effect we was using. Then when it go to number 1 and stay there, everybody started trying for that style and it soon become established." According to The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, the entire album Right Time
Right Time
Right Time is the 1976 studio album debut of influential reggae band the Mighty Diamonds. The album, released by Virgin Records after they signed the Mighty Diamonds following a search for talent in Jamaica, is critically regarded as a reggae classic, a landmark in the roots reggae subgenre...
was "revolutionary", the breakthrough album of "masters of groove and propulsion" Dunbar and Shakespeare, with "Sly's radical drumming matching the singers' insurrectionary lyrics blow-for-blow."
Dunbar and Shakespeare formed their Taxi Records label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
in 1980. It has seen releases from many international successful artists
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, including Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru are a Jamaican reggae group formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru . The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years, with Duckie Simpson always maintaining group control and ownership...
, Chaka Demus and Pliers, Ini Kamoze
Ini Kamoze
Cecil Campbell , better known by his stage name Ini Kamoze is a Jamaican reggae singer. He is best known for his signature song, "Here Comes the Hotstepper", which was released in 1994, and subsequently topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart...
, Beenie Man
Beenie Man
Anthony Moses Davis , better known by his stage name Beenie Man, is a Grammy award winning Jamaican reggae artist. He is the self-proclaimed "King of the Dancehall".-Biography:...
and Red Dragon
Red Dragon
Red Dragon is a novel by Thomas Harris, first published in 1981. It was the first novel to feature Harris's character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. The novel was adapted as a film, Manhunter, in 1986 which featured Brian Cox as Lecter...
.
Dunbar played for The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators were a dub/reggae backing band in the 1970s & 1980s, and one of the main session bands of producer, Bunny Lee. The line-up varied, with Lee using the name for whichever set of musicians he was using at any time. The band's name derived from the record shop that Lee had run in the...
for Bunny Lee; The Upsetters
The Upsetters
The Upsetters was the name given to the house band for Jamaican reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. The name of the band comes from Perry's nickname of Upsetter, after his song "I Am The Upsetter", a musical dismissal of his former boss Coxsone Dodd....
for Lee Perry, The Revolutionaries
The Revolutionaries
The Revolutionaries is a Jamaican reggae band.-Career:Set up in 1975 as the house band of the Channel One Studios owned by Joseph Hoo Kim, The Revolutionaries with Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass, created the new "rockers" style that would change the whole Jamaican sound The...
for Joseph Hoo Kim
Joseph Hoo Kim
-Career:Shortly after the Jamaican government banned gaming machines in the early 1970s, Joe Joe Hookim and his brother Ernest, abandoned their jobs as machine operators, and jumped into the music business. By 1973, the Hookims had opened their own studio, Channel One, with Joe Joe as its hands-on...
, and recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
for Barry O'Hare in the 1990s.
Sly and Robbie also played on Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's albums Infidels
Infidels
Infidels is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 22nd studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1983.Produced by Mark Knopfler and Dylan himself, Infidels is seen as his return to secular music, following a conversion to Christianity and three evangelical, gospel records...
and Empire Burlesque
Empire Burlesque
Empire Burlesque is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 23rd studio album, released by Columbia Records in June 1985. The album peaked at #33 in the US and #11 in the UK....
(using recordings
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
from the Infidels sessions
Music session
A Music session, traditional music session or simply session is a term often used to describe a social gathering of musicians. Sometimes a music session is referred to as a jam session. Much of the music at such events revolves around traditional music for the area or popular songs. A suitable...
). Other sessions
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
include their appearance on three Grace Jones
Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
albums, and work with Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Joe Cocker, Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
.
In 2008 Sly Dunbar collaborated with Larry McDonald
Larry McDonald
Lawrence Patton McDonald, M.D. was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the seventh congressional district of Georgia as a Democrat...
, the Jamaican percussionist, on his long awaited debut album "Drumquestra" for Executive Producer Malik Al Nasir
Malik Al Nasir
Malik Al Nasir is a British author and poet, born in Liverpool, England in 1966 to a Welsh mother and a Guyanese father. He grew up partly with his family in Liverpool and after the paralysis of his father, he was taken into local authority care...
and his "MCPR Music" label in Dubai. The album featured Toots Hibbert
Toots Hibbert
Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert is a ska and roots reggae singer and leader of the reggae band Toots & the Maytals.-Biography:...
, Bongo Herman
Bongo Herman
Herman Davis , better known as Bongo Herman, is a Jamaican hand-drummer, percussionist and singer who has had a successful career stretching back to the early 1960s.-Biography:...
, Steel Pulse
Steel Pulse
Steel Pulse is a roots reggae musical band. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School, in Birmingham, England, composed of David Hinds , Basil Gabbidon , and Ronald McQueen .-History:...
producer Sidney Mills
Sidney Mills
Sidney Mills was born in the UK in 1959 and moved to Jamaica as a child. He was raised in the Saint Thomas Parish and became a musician from an early age he moved to Kingston the late sixties....
Sticky Thompson from The Wailers and Dollarman
Dollarman
Dollarman is a Caribbean singer, songwriter, producer and musician born in Grenada. Moving to Brooklyn, NY he continues to present hits with a Caribbean influence and reggae.-Career:...
from The Easy Star All-Stars
Easy Star All-Stars
Originally formed as a studio band for the label's earliest recordings, Easy Star All-Stars is a reggae collective with a rotating roster of musicians and singers founded by the co-founders of New York City-based Easy Star Records in 1997...
. Sly Dunbar performed in an orchestra of drummers; conceived by Executive Producer Malik Al Nasir
Malik Al Nasir
Malik Al Nasir is a British author and poet, born in Liverpool, England in 1966 to a Welsh mother and a Guyanese father. He grew up partly with his family in Liverpool and after the paralysis of his father, he was taken into local authority care...
and Larry McDonald, which Larry described as a "Drumquestra". The album was recorded live in the Harry J Studio in Kingston Jamaica and mixed at Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean is a Haitian musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country...
's Platinum Sound Recording Studios
Platinum Sound Recording Studios
Platinum Sound Recording Studios is a boutique recording studio in Manhattan, New York City, located on restaurant row in the theater district. Founded in 2000 by multi-platinum record producers, the studio is one of the leading luxury commercial recording studios -Platinum albums and singles:*The...
in New York, by Serge Tsai.