Valuing vinyl - Faithful few keep records in the dancehall

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Overnight, it seemed, in the latter part of the 1990s - after more than 40 years of playing records - Jamaican sound systems went to the smaller, shinier compact disc. Gone were the bulky boxes of LPs, including the one-off 'dub plate' recordings done for specific sound systems, replaced eventually by pouches which selectors would pack with more music but a much lighter load.

Also gone, though, was the visual that comes with vinyl, as the selector carefully extracts the record, sprays it and settles it on the turntable, carrying across the needle to rest neatly in the required groove.

While the CD and even MP3 formats definitely rule the sound system roost, there is a glimmer of hope for the vinyl lovers. Two events, last night's 'Vibes is Right' at Wickie Wackie Beach, Bull Bay, St Andrew, and the early August indoor party 'Kingston Rock BMI Session - Selector's Choice, Strictly Vinyl' will utilise only records.

Long relationship

Ai Irisawa will be staging the latter event, for which Lucas 'Cap Calcini' Corthesy is one of the selectors. Irisawa's relationship with vinyl goes back to her time in London, when she was selling seven inch and LP records.

However, when she relocated to Jamaica "I never saw people play vinyl here. I never saw sound systems with turntables. They departed from vinyl before sound system people overseas," Irisawa said.

"They (sound systems outside Jamaica) love the style, so they kept it even when Jamaica abandoned it."

It is not a matter of tradition only, as Irisawa says "I love the sound of vinyl, the range. The bass is bigger, When you listen to a CD on a stereo there are so many sounds you do not hear, like the bass and mid-range and high frequency. (With vinyl) you hear every detail."

Lee Tafari of Lee's Unlimited sound system plays only vinyl and also speaks to the superior audio experience. He describes the CD as "sharper" and the vinyl as "warmer".

"With the vinyl you hear different parts of the music - the mid-range, the bass. It is like you in the groove," he said. Tafari also dismisses notions that CDs have better quality than records. "Most sound systems not playing the quality like Lee's. And is not that we have better equipment. Is because we playing records. They have to drive the sound harder to get quality," he said.

And while he says "most records are mastered near to an equal level", there is often a disparity between the quality of various CDs, which makes for fluctuations.

Irisawa says she sold her final set of vinyl very recently to persons in California, who are urging her to press more records. Junior Delgado and Dennis Brown tunes are among the set. The Jamaican music at her early August party will most likely cover up to mid-1990s, as after the CD took hold fewer producers put out 45s and LPs.

Cutting records

On the other hand, Lee Tafari plays "the handful" of newer songs he finds meet his quality standards by cutting the records himself. Among those are tracks from Jah9 and Protoje. He takes the CDs to the studio, notably Arrows, and gets the songs pressed as a vinyl recording. Four songs come on one of these special recordings, at a total cost of $3,500, and he says at times the studio will go up to six tracks.

"It is sacrifice and more work, but as a man works he gets paid," Tafari said.

"A lot of songs people playing I not playing," Tafari said. However, he is going by his late father's advice to focus not on what he lacks, but what he has that others don't.

Tafari points out that the turntables he is using are 20 years old and the sound is as good as ever. Having used all other formats, he is sure that he would have to service CD players every two years or maybe every year, at significant cost.

Irisawa's passion for vinyl has gone beyond putting on a vinyl session.

"I recently bought a Technics turntable, which I used to have in London," she said and there is only one make to have - the 1200.