Welcome to Reference Tracks, a series from KLH where we talk to people in the music and audio business about what songs, albums and artists they listen to when testing out a stereo or speakers.
This time we interviewed Adisa Nickerson, KLH Audio’s new brand manager. Adisa started with KLH a few months ago and will help lead the company’s direction as it continues to grow in the 21st century. He’s also a professional trumpet player, playing with the band Deborah and the Nightstalkers and performing with the reggae band Link & Chain. We’d be remiss not to mention he co-founded the Atom Jazz Network and gigs all around the country playing everything from reggae, to polka, to jazz, blues, and funk.
We’ll get more into Adisa’s background playing music, how the trumpet found him and his philosophy on listening below. Long story short, he sees a future where we wrest control back from algorithms and re-embrace listening to music as a communal activity.
We talk to a lot of music people here at KLH Audio, people who run labels, reviewers who listen as their profession, others that design audio products. Not only are we asking about what music they listen to to test whether speakers sound good, but also how it makes them feel. That’s the real question in these conversations, how does hi-fi make you feel? At some point the industry stopped talking about music and started talking about the gear all by itself. Reference tracks is the space where we can once again talk to people about music they love.
Without further ado, meet Adisa:
KLH Audio: You're a musician, which we haven't had yet on Reference Tracks. Tell me about your history playing the trumpet. You're gigging out with bands, playing in groups. How did that start?
Adisa Nickerson: I've played since I was 10 years old. In addition to trumpet, I've always acted and sung and done all kinds of stuff, so I think I'm just a performer, and living in the South, trumpet was the vehicle that got me on stage a lot.
When I had kids, I stopped playing, because as a guy you think that when you have kids you're supposed to give up shit. You get serious, you know? So I stopped, and that was when I was living in Atlanta. When I moved here, my two older kids, who were four and six at the time, were starting to show an interest in music. So I pulled the horn back out, just as an example to show them I could play. Then I took a gig just to get my chops back together, and honestly it just grew from there.
I moved here [Denver] in 2016 and played my first gig in the spring of 2017, Cinco de Mayo. I've pretty much played every weekend since. I tell people I'm not the best trumpet player in Denver, but I am the most versatile. I play in a reggae band, a polka band, a jazz band, a blues band, and a funk band.
Wow, you really do cover basically every kind of music that regularly has a trumpet here.
Pretty much. Like I said, I like to perform, so whatever gets me on stage, I'm down to do it. I just like to be around music. I'm a true junkie.
So why trumpet? You started at 10, and when you picked it back up, that's a choice, right?
No, trumpet was not a choice. It was forced on me. Again, I just wanted to perform. My mom worked at a high school, and she asked around to see if any kids had an instrument in their closet that they weren't playing.
A guy came by the house with a trumpet and gave it to me, and that was it. I decided I was going to be pretty good at it, because that was what was available to me. I think I would have played whatever was available at the time. It happened to be a trumpet.
I was just reading something about a rock musician who grew up in a house where there was a guitar. There was no other choice: it was there, so if I'm going to play music, I have to figure this thing out.
Right. I don't think I was born to play the trumpet. It doesn't make sense to me the way it does for a lot of guys, where it comes really easy. That's not me at all. It's just what was available to me.
So you’re in charge of leading brand management for a legendary audio company. Do you remember hearing a really good stereo for the first time as a kid, and what music was playing?
Yeah. My dad had a Marantz receiver, and I'm actually trying to track it down right now. A few years ago my mom asked me if I wanted it and I said no, and a week ago I found out she'd given it to one of my cousins. He actually wants a new Victrola setup in exchange for it.
Easy peasy, man.
Right, so I'm trying to make that happen. But yeah, my dad had that receiver. I don't remember what kind of speakers he had, but I remember how big they were, and you could take the grills off. That whole process was just magic to me.
I spent so much time with his records, watching him play them while he told me the stories behind them. I was young, so I didn't really get it, but I was there because I was hanging out with him. We didn't have a lot of money, so the first one he bought for me was the single of "Beat It" by Michael Jackson. I think "Billie Jean" was on the other side, or "Thriller" was one of them. I believe that was '84 or '86. Right after that, the first album I got, which I recently reacquired, was "We Are the World."
"We Are the World" was a magical moment for me. Being a kid who was into music at that time, it was like all of my friends gathered in one place and made a song. It was like the Avengers got together and made a song. And being a kid who was just a music junkie, there was nothing better.
It's one of the records I put on to test speakers, because one, the music in that recording is so rich, and also you've got so many different voices, and hearing and distinguishing between them, if you really know that recording, you're like, “That's Huey Lewis, that's Bob Dylan, that's Cyndi Lauper!”
It's true, I didn't really think about it from that perspective.
The better the speakers, the better you can hear the richness in those voices, the vulnerability in them. There's a lot of vulnerability in that recording, because they were extremely nervous to be around one another and to sing for one another. With a good pair of speakers, you can hear all of that.
That's really interesting. When you go to audiophile conferences, it's female vocal, male vocal, and they're separated out. I didn't really think about this as a catch-all record, but it is.
You've got everything. You've got Ray Charles. You've got Michael Jackson leading it off with one of the sweetest, most melodic lines. No, wait, it's Lionel Richie who leads it off. Lionel's first.
Lionel's first and Michael's later, right?
Yes. It's just incredible. It's a very, very important recording to me, and I still own it today.
Well, that's what's been fun about this series. When we started it six or eight months ago, I sort of thought we'd get repeats. Everybody would say Kind of Blue, or some Van Gelder recording where you can tell that if you stand in the room, or where Coltrane was playing the horn. But what's been fun is that everybody says, "The thing I test speakers with is the thing I know the best." And that's a different answer for literally everybody.
Like Billy Fields from Warner Brothers: the first vinyl record he ever bought himself was a Lee Morgan record. It was a 1990s reissue, from when Blue Note was putting out all that stuff from the vault that had never come out originally. You can get it for 9 bucks on Discogs now, because it's not an important Lee Morgan record.
But, it was important to him.
Yes. And he knows exactly where the horn should be and where the drums come in.
What's key about that is that every young person who loves music has had that gateway recording that just sucked them in, and you listen to it over and over and over again. I can certainly relate to that, both as a kid and as an adult. There are certain recordings I can only get on CD, and I have to go on eBay and buy them every five years, because I wear them out and the CD just breaks down. It costs like 3 bucks, and someone's always willing to sell it. But it's because I know those recordings so well. It means a lot to me.
Since you've started at KLH, is there anything else you need to listen to, to test whether you're setting these speakers up right?
First of all, I have to acknowledge that I don't think we can test speakers without playing some Van Gelder stuff. You just have to.
Yeah, you have to. That guy was so far ahead in terms of recording technology. He could see the matrix before it got to where it is now. He was doing unreal stuff, like recording in Dolby surround sound, but with a few microphones in a room.
He was doing live recordings, and we still haven't figured it out. I'll give you a couple of others. It's funny, I listened to a podcast about it over the weekend and agreed with everything they said: Roy Hargrove's Earfood. It's an amazing recording sonically, because it's a modern recording that sounds like it could easily have been recorded in the '50s or '60s. It's one of the best-sounding albums ever made.
Bill Withers' "Use Me" is another great one.
Lots of separation if you can get the speakers right.
Yes, lots of separation. "Love and Happiness" by Al Green is a big one. And really anything recorded by Dave Cobb.
His ability to put the listener in the room is just otherworldly. I don't understand it, but when I listen to his recordings, I feel like I am there. His ability to do that is just different from everybody else's.
Absolutely. Okay, last question and probably one of the ones where a lot of KLH Audio fans will be curious to see your response: Where do you want to take KLH in your job as its brand manager?
I want to re-engage people who really appreciated the brand, connect them with new owners of KLH and build a community around the product. I think KLH has a unique opportunity to return us to a place where people are willing to stop and listen to music. Not background music; actually making listening the priority and the activity, as opposed to streaming it in the background while we do other things.
And look, there’s nothing wrong with streaming music in the background, we all do it. I just think we've gotten away from prioritizing listening to music, and KLH can be part of the revolution that takes us back. Otherwise, what AI has planned for us musically is not good. I want KLH to be a leader in helping people really return to listening and the artists.
It was great to talk to you. Thank you.
Thank you, man. This was fun. I can talk about music anytime, anywhere.