Desmond McKenzie is more known as a politician than for his involvement in the arts. But the local government and rural development minister has, for the past 15 years, been presenting a five-hour radio programme named The Mayor’s Parlour, described as “a unique musical experience custom-made for vintage music lovers”, every Sunday on Nationwide 90 FM.

The blurb on the Nationwide website about the programme explains that “McKenzie is a former sound system operator and boasts an extensive collection of vinyl records — one of the largest and most comprehensive in Jamaica — and it keeps on growing”.

That credential, no doubt, influenced the Vinyl Record Collectors Association (VRCA) to invite McKenzie — who also served as Kingston mayor from 2003 to 2011 — to address the recent media launch of its 26th annual Memorial Weekend Sit-In scheduled for Jamaica, May 26-29.

McKenzie, known as a man who doesn’t shrink from expressing his views, didn’t disappoint his hosts. In addition to congratulating them for helping to preserve the joy of playing vinyl records, he launched a broadside against “trash” posing as music and those who play it.

“I want to commend you, and congratulate you, and urge you not to lose focus,” McKenzie told the VRCA members and guests at the event launch inside Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

“I don’t believe that those of us who play the music should degrade and devalue our name by playing trash. When I speak about trash, you all know what I’m talking about — anything that glorifies murder, devalues women and sends messages that are not conducive to proper upbringing, because some of the lyrics that we hear today leave much to be desired,” he said to applause and nods of approval.

He credited veteran singers Ken Booth, Marcia Griffiths, Derrick Morgan, and others, for making Jamaican music “what it is today” and reflected on the days when his yard was where artistes wishing to impress legendary producer Duke Reid would wait before being auditioned.

“In those days, when you go into a studio you had musicians inside there. Nowadays, a man sit down at him yard and use a computer, lay down a track and claim him mek a record. That don’t work for me,” McKenzie said.

“We must preserve the industry. Continue to allow vintage vinyl music to come back to be what it used to be,” he added.

“Vinyl is, for me, something that touches the heart of those of us who love music. To take up that record in your hand and to clean it and place it on the turntable and to let it go gives you a sense of pride,” McKenzie said.

He pointed out that vinyl record sales had suffered a decline with the use of modern technology to create music. However, that has changed in recent years.

A Recording Industry Association of America report released this year states that over the past decade vinyl records have made a comeback with sales of just over 41 million units earning US$1.2 billion in 2022, a 20 per cent jump from the previous year, surpassing CD sales for the first time since 1988. In fact, CD sales in 2022 amounted to 33 million, which raked in US$483 million.

Said McKenzie: “So when you talk about vinyl records we’re not just talking about an ordinary bit of music entertainment, we’re talking about an industry that has provided steady employment. Everywhere now in the world you go, record shops are opening up, selling records.”

Jamaica, he said, had set a commendable pace in the vinyl records industry worldwide and shared a discussion he had over the Easter holiday in Miami with an American man who told him of his love for Jamaica and who named some of the venues in Kingston and St Andrew where he attended parties at which vinyl records were played.

“He took me downtown Miami to a record shop called Technique. I went in there and it would take you about three weeks to seriously go through, but what I noticed going through a lot of records, I saw made in Jamaica. So whether it’s Dynamic Sounds, or West Indies Records, or Federal Records, or Record Specialists, Jamaica’s contribution to the vinyl industry is up there in the top,” McKenzie said.

Michael “Louis” Owens, VRCA president, said that he expects “conservatively, anywhere from 200 to 250 people from overseas” to visit Jamaica for the Memorial Weekend Sit-In.

He said that at least one hotel in St Andrew has already holding 90 rooms pre-booked for the weekend.

“There’s great excitement for this event — our premier annual event. People who support us have been going out as much as before the COVID period. We expect strong support,” said Owens.

The VCRA has chapters in Jamaica, Toronto, Connecticut, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and South Florida.

The weekend of activities will open with a meet-and-greet at Caymanas Golf Club on May 26, followed by a Jamaican dance party at the same venue a day later. An awards banquet is scheduled for May 28, also at Caymanas Golf Club, and the event will climax on May 29 with a Jamaican family picnic at Boone Hall Oasis, Stony Hill, St Andrew.