MUSIC producer Bunny “Striker” Lee is being hailed for his expertise, vision and indomitable spirit by colleague Lloyd “King Jammy” James and singer Johnny Clarke.

“Ah mi teacher dat… He’s one of the best producers outta Jamaica… Remember, he invented the ‘flying cymbal’ which you can hear in Johnny Clarke’s Move Out Of Babylon. So he was not only a producer, but a creator,” James told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“Him used to write songs fi nuff ah dem artiste deh. He used to come up with ideas like Johnny Clarke’s African Roots and dem tune deh. Johnny Clarke come wid the punchline, but him put in lyrics… He was also instrumental in nuff a dem young musician lives… Sly and Robbie, and the whole a dem, Lloyd Parks,” he continued.

Lee, who had been ailing for some time, died in the University Hospital of West Indies is St Andrew on Tuesday. He was 79.

“He was supposed to have come out of hospital today (yesterday). He had been admitted 10 days ago,” said James, adding that he was Lee’s best man and godfather to his son, Junior.

James, principal of the Waterhouse-based King Jammy’s Studio, said he’s indebted to the late producer for insisting he ‘got back in the game’.

“If it wasn’t for Bunny Lee, I wouldn’t be what I am today because him see mi a Canada and tell me fi come home back. Him say: ‘Come home King, wi need you a Jamaica now fi come produce some tune’. And ah really follow him and come home. And when I came home, is him give mi the first riddim fi start produce a Jamaica. I came back in 1974. But I didn’t start producing that same year. I was the engineer at King Tubby’s and did most engineering for Bunny Lee because mi used to occupy most a mi time with him,” he said.

King Tubby, whose given name is Osbourne Ruddock, was a pioneer studio engineer and music producer. He was shot and killed on February 6, 1989 by an unknown assailant outside his home in Duhaney Park, St Andrew, after returning from a recording session at his studio. He was 48.

Singer Johnny Clarke remembers Lee as one who had his finger on the market’s pulse.

“Striker ah mi motivator. He is a man when him call yuh fi sing a tune, it end up a hit. So if call yuh again, yuh nah go hesititate,” said Clarke.

And Clarke received several ‘calls’ from Lee which produced classics, including None Shall Escape, Left With A Broken Heart, Blood Dunza, Jah Jah In Deh, Roots Natty Congo and the smash hit M ove Out Of Babylon.

“We did a make tune weh the people dem love,” said Clarke.

Bunny Lee, whose real name is Edward O’Sullivan Lee, learned the music business pushing songs at dances by Duke Reid and Clement “Coxson” Dodd.

In the late 1960s, he produced a number of lovers’ rock songs that included Conversation (The Uniques), Everybody Needs Love (Slim Smith), Smooth Operator, Better Must Come (Delroy Wilson) and Stick By Me (John Holt).

That mellow sound evolved as the rebellious 70s dawned. Lee embraced the volatile times by producing hard-hitting songs by Rastafarian artistes.

Max Romeo’s Let The Power Fall and The Gorgon by Cornel Campbell are some of the songs produced during that period.

A documentary film, I Am The Gorgon —Bunny Striker Lee and the Roots of Reggae, was released in 2015. It was directed by English flautist Diggory Kenrick.

In 2008, he was awarded the Order of Distinction (Officer Class) by the Jamaican Government for his contribution to the development of the country’s music.

Lee is survived by widow, Annette, and children.