RIP Robbie Shakespeare

[Drunk Monk]

Robbie Shakespeare, ‘Wickedest Bass’ in Reggae, Dead at 68


Alongside his Riddim Twins counterpart Sly Dunbar, the bassist played with everyone from Black Uhuru to Bob Dylan across more than four decades

• DAVID BROWNE
  DECEMBER 8, 2021 6:28PM EST
  

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Robbie Shakespeare, the renowned reggae bassist who helped move the genre into new sonic territory and whose playing was heard on classics by Black Uhuru and Peter Tosh as well as albums by rock icons such as Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger, has died at age 68. His death, from unconfirmed causes, was announced on Twitter by Olivia Grange, Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment & Sport.
As half of the long-standing and prolific rhythm section Sly and Robbie, with his longtime friend and collaborator Sly Dunbar on drums, Shakespeare was rooted in the reggae rhythms of his native Jamaica. But he and Dunbar were also sonic mad scientists, moving their sound — and the music — into even more syncopated, electronic-driven territory on classic singles like Grace Jones’ “Pull Up to the Bumper.”
“Big, big loss,” Black Uhuru’s Michael Rose tells Rolling Stone. “Nobody sounds like Robbie. He had the wickedest bass. You’ll never find nothing like that again.”
“Words cannot describe the sadness we feel at the loss of our dear friend Robbie,” Zak Starkey posted on Instagram. “A giant of a man who brought deep outta space bass to the world and so much great times to us in Jamaica. We will miss you so. Truly thankful to u for yr massive part in our music — we could not have done it without you.”
Born Sept. 27, 1953, Shakespeare was raised in East Kingston, Jamaica. After learning to playing guitar, he became an early protégé of bass legend Aston “Family Man” Barrett. “One evening I was there going about my business when I saw him there rehearsing with a band named the Hippy Boys,” Shakepeare recalled to United Reggae in 2012. “When I saw him playing his thing I said, ‘Wait.’ Because I was always attracted to bass, you know. … The sound from the bass that time there hit me and I said, ‘Shiiiiiit.’ I said to him, ‘I want to learn how to play this thing. You haffi teach me.’ Then the next morning he woke me up and started giving me some bass line lessons.”

When Barrett joined the Wailers, Shakespeare took his place in the Hippy Boys and also played with the Aggravators, another local band. In 1973, Shakespeare’s life changed when he was invited to hear Dunbar play at a reggae club, Tit for Tat. “I said, ‘Who’s Sly?’ ” Shakespeare said at Red Bull Music Academy in 2008. “’Sly’s a drummer.’ ‘Alright, come on.’ We went over there and Sly is sitting down on the drums, and I said, ‘Whoa, he can beat a drum. That’s a good sound, I want a session with that youth.’  … We started playing and everyone was jumping, ‘Whoa yeah!’ The studio was packed, and they said, ‘Yeah, that combination is wicked.’ It started from there.”
“The first time we played together I think it was magic,” Dunbar said in 2009. “We locked into that groove immediately. I listen to him and he listens to me. We try to keep it simple.”
Shakespeare and Dunbar soon became members of the Revolutionaries, the house band for Jamaica’s Channel One studio. That outfit pioneered the heavily syncopated reggae offshoot that came to be known as rockers. The duo also started their own production company and record label, Taxi. During the mid-Seventies, the two, known as the Riddim Twins, appeared on classic albums by Tosh and also recorded with nearly every major reggae act, including Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, and Barrington Levy.
Shakespeare and Dunbar reached a new level of success and renown in the late Seventies when they joined one of reggae’s biggest bands, Black Uhuru. That association led them to Island Records head Chris Blackwell, who soon recruited them for Grace Jones’ genre-smashing Nightclubbing LP in 1981. Starting around this time, Sly and Robbie began incorporating more computer-generated rhythms and sounds into their tracks. In 1985, the first year the Grammys included a category for Best Reggae Anthem, the award went to Black Uhuru’s Anthem, produced by Sly and Robbie.

Demand for the duo grew, and soon they appeared on albums by Dylan, Jagger, Yoko Ono, Jackson Browne, and Carly Simon. “Bob was one of my all time writers and singers from a long time,” Shakespeare said in 2012 of working on three Dylan albums, starting with 1981’s Infidels. “When we worked with Bob, he worked the way we work. He’d just go in the studio and start playing and we’d just jump in. There wasn’t any pressure from him — you’d more pressure yourself to make sure you get the right thing. Which I do, mostly every session, to get the right thing, the right flavor, the right mix.”
Into the 2000s, the duo worked with Sinead O’Connor and also remixed Britney Spears’ “Piece of Me.” In 2020, Shakespeare was ranked 17th on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest bassists of all time. Asked where he would have placed himself on that list, he joked, “Number two.”

Feel dis. Forever loving JAH...

[thatguy]

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robbie-s...53/credits

Credits: 2,524 tracks!

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

You know, I am of the heretical opinion that Sly and Robbie are much better at playing funk than reggae. To me their reggae groove is a bit stiff. It's why I never liked Black Uhuru very much. I think their best work is with Grace Jones.

I'm now listening to Joy in the Morning KZSU's Thursday reggae show with my friend Tiffany Harmon on the 1s & 2s. She's spinning a tribute show of course. I'm remembering KB's general disdain for the slap bass style, which might account for his heresy. 

I've seen Sly & Robbie so many times. They were a mainstay at SNWMF. What they mastered was that trance-like drone that hypnotized crowds into a skankin sway. They were soulful live. 

I only have one S&R CD - Stripped to the Bone. I have plenty of CDs that they played upon, but this one was just them, a dub CD. And it was music for strippers. There used to be an accompanying promo video site with dancehall divas doing that slow wind & grind. I'll toss that on later. I remember it not being very good, but I've kept it for the novelty of it.

[King Bob]

End of an era. I don't think I ever saw them.

I used to have Language Barrier, where they did a Miles Davis song with Wayne Shorter. It was more funk than reggae - Bill Laswell produced it and I think assembled the band. In my quest to reassemble all the music I've owned, I've been looking for a copy, but never found it.

Looking at the list of stuff they played on posted by TG, there are some albums I really like, so maybe it depends on who they were working with.

[Drunk Monk]

Listening to my 3rd Robbie Shakespeare tribute in three days. 

Thursday was Joy in the Morning on KZSC
Friday was Solid Foundation on KKUP
Tonight is back to KZSC for Reggae Love Radio

Reggae makes for great background music when working. And it's been a rollercoaster of a week workwise. I had a small respite with the recovery of my corrupted data files this morning, but then got some terrible news about my medical coverage just now. At least I had a few untroubled hours. This winter solstice is a rough one.

[Drunk Monk]

One more tribute

Spliff Skankin's show on KFJC. I was just remembering some 22+ years ago when I hosted this show. Stacy had given a donation to the radio station which allowed me to take over the 1&2s under Spliff's watchful eye. All my local reggae bredren & sistren were tuned in. And it was there where I announced that Stacy was pregnant with Tara to the world. I had a cassette tape of that show. I wonder what became of that. 

I run into Spliff occasionally in the reggae scene. Sometimes I remind him of this. He acts like he remembers but I don't think he does. I think the last time we crossed paths was at a private party at DJ Spleece's house here in Mo Bay. Some of the hardest DJs showed up and spun, and DJ Spleece lives in a quaint house out in the country. We all parked in a neighboring field. That was so irie.

[King Bob]

All that spliff is bad for the memory. We saw a comedian once who said that he gave up pot and thought he was psychic because he could remember things.

And naturally I have to go a bit off topic. TG's link to his recording credits got me digging into some AllMusic listings to see who played on some Burning Spear tunes. Interestingly, RS played a bit, but most of the studio recordings show Aston Barrett as the bass player. That surprised me since the Spear grooves tend to have big bass notes on the first beat of the phrase (Civilize Reggae for a great example), while I've always noticed his lines on Marley tunes that don't hit the downbeat at all (Natural Mystic for a great example). Of course that's only a few of them - some more listening showed me the obvious similarites: the bass line in Want More is just like one of the lines in some Burning Spear tunes. In fact lots of the lines sound like the lines in Spear tunes, but he starts the line in a different place in the measure. I'm going to have to experiment with that.

[Drunk Monk]

Listening to JAH's Music on KKUP but Benny is absent and the sub is clueless. No tribute. He keeps mispronouncing patois terms.

Interesting bassline thoughts. If you remember my KF bro Marc Velez, he attributes Shakespeare as his inspiration for learning reggae bass. When he was 14, he tuned into 'Rock School' on PBS produced by Herbie Hancock and that was his first taste of it. He's played piano since childhood, even used to teach a little on the side...

[King Bob]

I remember Marc well. I always liked him. Piano to bass seems like an easy move, since your left hand plays bass on the piano anyway. I took up the bass on a whim because TG and Roman were looking for a bass player. I had never even considered it before. I don't know if TG was trying to coax me when he mentioned it, but I immediately said I'd do it.

I know Marley was probably the first reggae I heard, but I first really took notice of the reggae bass with Burning Spear. All the lines are so massive. I recently read that Paul Simenon (The Clash) said that he was influenced by Leroy Sibbles of the Heptones. Specifically he said that he wanted a big bass sound like Sibbles for "London Calling."

[Drunk Monk]

Marc is doing well - he has a good job in Sacto overseeing alternative medicine for Sutter. He has a wife and kid, and just built a granny unit to house his mom, who previously lived in Newark. I always thought he'd be a good candidate for D00M but now he's probably too old to catch up our twisted dysfunctional dynamics. 

I'm not sure what the first reggae I heard was. It may have been something off a Monty Python album. There was this history lesson sketch done musically by Eric Idle and Neil Innis that I was very fond of in elementary school. I can't remember the bit. It was only on one of the records. Years later, I listened to it only to discover it was a reggae riff.

[Drunk Monk]

One more tribute from my buddy DJ Spleece on KZSC's All Fruits Ripe show.