Jamaican keyboardist and producer Wycliffe 'Steely' Johnson, one half of influential dancehall/reggae production duo Steely & Clevie (pictured - Johnson on the right), died on Tuesday after suffering from pneumonia; he was in his early 50s.
Steely first started working in music as a keyboardist in the seventies, backing numerous artists in the studio and on tour, including Gregory Isaacs and Bunny Wailer. But it was when he teamed up with Cleveland 'Clevie' Browne that he came to wider attention. During the seventies the duo worked as session musicians - most notably for Lee 'Scratch' Perry's Black Ark Studios - before moving into music production in the eighties. In 1987 they formed their own Steely & Clevie label, later founding the bigger Studio 2000 label set up.
Through their production work Steely & Clevie became very influential in the late eighties reggae scene, and over the subsequent years worked with a wide range of reggae and dancehall artists, and some more mainstream pop acts, including Bounty Killer, Elephant Man, Beenie Man, Jimmy Cliff, Shabba Ranks, Billy Ocean, No Doubt and The Backstreet Boys.
Paying tribute, Dwayne McKay, founder of New York based Jamaican-orientated sound system Steelie Bashment, told CaribWorldNews.com: "I am deeply saddened by the passing of Wycliffe 'Steely' Johnson. His passing is a tremendous loss to the dancehall industry, and a tremendous loss to me personally - Steely is the man who sparked my love of music and inspired me to be a selector. Talk to anyone who grew up with me, and they'll tell you that I idolized Steely. When I struggling to establish myself as a selector in the early days, I adopted the name 'Steelie' with the goal to one day have my own sound and be at the top of the game - like Steely".