Mellow Rebels

For half a century, Sly & Robbie reached into every corner of popular music. They were reggae icons and an in-demand rhythm section and production team, working alongside Bob Marley and Peter Tosh early on, but later appearing on records by a staggering variety of artists, from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to Madonna and Sinéad O’Connor.

Drummer Lowell Fillmore “Sly” Dunbar, who died January 26 at 73, first met bassist Robbie Shakespeare when they were teens in the Trench Town neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica, the birthplace of rocksteady and reggae. For them, reggae was at the root of their identity as musicians, but they were always interested in stretching out in new directions, from the new textures of dancehall reggae to electronic dance music.

At the link in the comments, find our writer's recollection of a meeting with the late reggae icon in Jamaica in 1999. 🙏

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEGD297KPkM

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