Sly Dunbar case study

Sly Dunbar case study;




Reggae drummer sly dunbar, famously partnered with bassist Robbie Shakespeare rose to success as duo 'sly and robbie' in the 70's. at just 16, Dunbar's drumming was recorded on Dave and Ansell collins 1969 record 'double barrell'.  One of the stand out parts to sly dunbar was the arrangement of his drums, rather than a traditional set of drums
 he added an extra high tom, the usual set of drums has two at the most, whereas three are used here, and when playing live would often have to tape down the extra tom. Another odd part to his setup was a snare in place of the floor tom (presuming the extra high tom was to make room for this extra snare). His second snare would have the strings loosened which creates a more traditional Jamiacan drum sound. an example of  Sly and Robbie live, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFmI34xBD08, in this example you can hear the use of syncopation with Dunbars drums, the kick and snare drums are off beat, which is a common feature of reggae. This duo were one of the first to introduce a DJ that would 'toast' over their performance, and this in contrast with the smoother singing of Robbie created a new sound, this formula since has been used with great success by shagg, this was known as 'bam bam' style' from the sly and robbie track bam-bam.

The small scale of Sly and Robbie contrasts massively with a bigger reggae band such as the specials, who have seven members in all, but its not only the size difference. while Sly And Robbie are both Jamaican born, the specials are mainly English.

The combination of a bass and drums as a duo is not often seen, however two people making great sound using those two instruments has recently resurfaced, not through reggae or in fact nothing close to reggae, but through english rock duo royal blood. their singer, Mike Kerr, uses a bass (4 strings), the same that Robbie used, and Drummer ben thatcher, similarly uses extra toms and even more alike, a second snare in his setup, however both snares have the strings tight. While clearly not reggae, there are some some features used similarly. Mainly the use of riffs, just with this band, the riffs are much heavier and obvious, because of the genre, an example of their music would be; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BermIHe03zU

one of the 'top 100 drummers', Sly Dunbar is still alive today and his most recent piece of work was a collaboration with Larry McDonald on his debut album.  My opinion of Dunbars drumming is i personally love it, he gets a different, but intriguing sound and watching his laid back attitude makes the great sound look effortless.


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