Mourning! Farewell to world reggae pioneers Bunny Lee and Johnny Nash! Learn more.

A Last Tuesday, October 6th, will be marked by the farewell of two great pioneers of Reggae. At the end of the afternoon in Brazil, the first news arrived - Johnny Nash, author of hits such as "I Can See Clearly Now" (also immortalized in the voice of Jimmy Cliff, Ray Charles and others), passed away at home at the age of 80.

JOHNNY NASH

Johnny, born in Houston (USA) was one of the first non-Americans to record Reggae in Jamaica. At the age of 13 he was already appearing on TV shows. A turning point in his career came when he moved to Jamaica in 1965 and started Cayman Music, linked to the administration of artists' copyrights. His plan was to introduce Rocksteady to the USA and it was there that he met The Wailing Wailers, a group led by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. They were signed by Cayman Music and Nash played a fundamental role in promoting the music of the Wailers and Bob Marley. In her book, Rita Marley recounts several moments alongside Johnny Nash and his wife. Johnny Nash recorded several Bob Marley songs such as "Guava Jelly" and "Stir it Up", which were hugely successful in England. According to his family, Nash died of natural causes and left behind a couple of children and a wife.

BUNNY "Striker" LEE

We were still trying to digest the news of Johnny Nash's passing when another bombshell exploded the same night - Edward O'Sullivan Lee, better known as Bunny "Striker" Lee, passed away at the age of 79. Bunny Lee was undoubtedly one of the greatest music producers in the history of Jamaican Reggae. Bunny Lee began his career in music as a helper at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio in 1962, also working at Leslie Kong's studio. Shortly afterwards he started financing recordings and founded his label "Lee’s Label". In the early years he worked with none other than Roy Shirley, Stranger Cole, Lester Sterling, Derrick Morgan, Slim Smith, The Uniques, Max Romeo, Delroy Wilson, Eric Donaldson and John Holt. Among the huge hits of that time were "Stick By Me" (John Holt), "Wet Dream" (Max Romeo) and "Better Must Come" (Delroy Wilson). Bunny also played a fundamental role in the dissemination of Reggae in Europe, through the licensing of his productions to Trojan Records in the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, Bunny Lee broke the dominance of Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid in the field of musical productions. It was also at this time that he worked with Johnny Clarke, Cornell Campbell, Lee Perry and witnessed the emergence of the "flying cymbals" style, developed by Carlton "Santa" Davis" while he was the drummer for The Agroovators, Lee's resident studio band. As if that wasn't enough, Bunny Lee was also one of DUB's first producers, along with King Tubby and Lee Perry. But his contribution doesn't stop there. He was one of the first producers to see potential in "riddims", instrumental tracks sung by different artists. At that time, partnerships came with Linval Thompson, Leroy Smart and Barry Brown. At the end of the 70s he stood out for having recorded some of the greatest Jamaican toasters - names like U-roy, Dennis Alcapone, I-Roy, U Brown, Prince Jazzbo, Dr Alimantado, Trinity and Tapper Zukie. Bunny also became known as the producer of the first album (1983) by today's giant Buju Banton. There were many talents released by him. The giant Bunny Lee said goodbye at the age of 79 after several health complications such as diabetes, kidney and heart failure.

IN MEMORIAM

Check out this and other legends that have already left us, in the special section "In Memoriam".