American impresario and reggae pioneer Danny Sims has died at the age of 72.

Sims, who discovered Bob Marley in 1967, lost his long battle with colon cancer on 07 October (12) in Los Angeles, where he was receiving treatment.

Marley recorded more than 200 songs for Sims, a collaboration which garnered Marley his first international success with Stir It Up, recorded by reggae legend Johnny Nash.

Credited with their rise to fame from the Kingston ghetto, Sims managed Bob Marley and the Wailers for five years and later Paul Anka, one of the few white acts signed to his label JAD Records.

In 1977, Sims married Beverly Johnson, the first black American to appear on the cover of American Vogue, and after their divorce two years later, he was awarded custody of their daughter Anansa.

Born in Mississippi but raised in New York City, Sims was notoriously proud of his Manhattan Mob contacts - his business partner at RAD Records was Joe Armone, head of one of the biggest crime families in America.