Bunny Wailer, reggae luminary and founder of The Wailers, has died at 73

Bunny Wailer, a reggae luminary who was the last surviving founding member of legendary band The Wailers, died Tuesday in his native Jamaica. He was 73 years old.

Wailer, a baritone singer whose birth name is Neville Livingston, formed The Wailers in 1963 with the late superstars Bob Marley and Peter Tosh when they lived in a slum in the capital city of Kingston. They achieved international fame with the album “Catch a Fire” and also helped popularize Rastafarian culture among more affluent Jamaicans from the 1970s.

“Jah-B was a vanguard, always pushing the boundaries of expression, whether in song, style or speech,” said Brian Paul Welsh, a local reggae musician known as by Blvk H3ro. “There was and never can be but one Neville Livingston.”

Wailer died at Andrews Memorial Hospital in the Jamaican Parish of St. Andrew of complications from a stroke he suffered in July, director Maxine Stowe told The Associated Press.

His death was mourned around the world as people shared music, memories and photos of the renowned artist.

“The passing of Bunny Wailer, the last of the original Wailers, brings an end to the most vibrant period of the Jamaican musical experience,” Jamaican politician Peter Phillips wrote in a Facebook post. “Bunny was a good conscious Jamaican brother.”

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness also paid tribute to Wailer, calling him “the respected great statesman of the Jamaican music scene”, in a series of tweets.

“This is a great loss for Jamaica and for reggae, Bunny Wailer will no doubt be remembered for his remarkable contribution to the music industry and Jamaican culture,” he wrote.

As Wailer toured the world he was more at home in the mountains of Jamaica and enjoyed cultivating while writing and recording songs on his label, Solomonic.

“I think I love the country actually a little more than the city,” Wailer told The Associated Press in 1989. “It has more to do with life and health and strength. The city takes that away from it. sometimes. The country is good for meditation. It has fresh food and a cool atmosphere – it keeps you going. “

A year earlier, in 1988, he had chartered a jet plane and flew to Jamaica with food to help those affected by Hurricane Gilbert.

“Sometimes people pay less attention to these things (the food), but these are the most important things. I am a farmer, ”he told the AP.

He was the third and last original Wailer. Marley died in 1981 of a brain tumor at age 36 and Tosh was fatally shot in Jamaica in 1987 at age 42.