Sly Dunbar (1952–2026)
Sly Dunbar (b. Lowell Dunbar), the last living member of the Jamaican dub/reggae production duo Sly & Robbie, has passed away. His legacy overlaps several junctures of culture and industry—from pop to club and back again—to his signature homeland sound, dub music. Without Dunbar and (Robbie) Shakespeare’s influence, much of the more danceable, rhythmic, dub-inspired tracks you may have heard over the years—whether on the radio, in a nightclub, or on a movie soundtrack—might not have made the same impact it did.
What he and Shakespeare accomplished was the translation of the island sound to a much broader audience, making dub and sound-system music more accessible to DJs and listeners in the underground, while holding their own as a tour de force amid the rise of new wave, romanticism, and broad-range pop in the 1980s. His portfolio saw him working with the greats—and the greatest—from Herbie Hancock to Bob Dylan, often with sessions booked at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, arranged by Chris Blackwell of Island Records.
As a duo, Sly & Robbie were indeed knob-fiddlers, and it would be difficult to calculate or measure the sheer amount of influence that ricocheted from their productions over the last several decades. Their contributions to dub music culture alone cannot be overstated.