RSS 2.0 FeedOctober 28, 2009, Featured Articles, theSTEADY, Jazz
The way Angela Hagenbach makes us feel
Angela Hagenbach sits alone at the bar and leisurely sips her cocktail as her band warms up the audience. There is only a modest crowd in the club but she's unperturbed. It's early. She knows they'll show. It's this quiet confidence-and her velvet voice-that has made her a Kansas City favorite for nearly two decades. Hagenbach is the headliner for the Amercian Jazz Museum's "Vine Street Boogie."
Angela Hagenbach sits alone at the bar and leisurely sips her cocktail as her band warms up the audience. There is only a modest crowd in the club but she's unperturbed. It's early. She knows they'll show. It's this quiet confidence-and her velvet voice-that has made her a Kansas City favorite for nearly two decades.
"Next June 13," Hagenbach reveals. She marks that date as her 20th year of a professional singing career that has included a four-year stint playing five nights a week at the Ritz-Carlton.
"When I first started, there were so many places. I worked six or seven nights a week, sometimes two or three gigs a day."
Hagenbach scaled back on live performance about a year ago, tired of working night after night, weekends and holidays. "Now I get to be more selective. I play where I want."
Her confidence and contentment is the culmination of thousands of live gigs and the knowledge that at this point in her career, she calls her own shots. Coupled with her experience as a professional model, Hagenbach possesses an air of elegance, beauty, and poise even as she sits casually-dressed in a dark, long-sleeved shirt and jeans, her hair pulled back into a ponytail underneath a black cap.
There's nothing plain about the depth and power of her voice, however, rich and wrapped in cashmere. And that lower register is something to be experienced.
She captures the struggle and triumph of a single mother with "From Now On," making lyrics like "I've got to learn to walk again / It's so new being free / I don't mind," feel lived-in.
On "Just You, Just Me" Hagenbach displays impeccable timing and expressive phrasing, bringing to life the insouciant joy of infatuation and budding romance.
And with members of Sons of Brasil backing her, she takes a latin-jazz run at "It Ain't Necessarily So" that has the crowd swaying. Her confidence proves correct; the club is lively and the seats are filling up.
Hagenbach commands the stage with ease and grace, even working in some topical humor into her banter. She jokes about the colossal letdown of the recent NASA moon bombing and incorporated the news story into the lyrics of "Old Devil Moon."
Tonight, her usual backing band is replaced by Stan Kessler (trumpet) and Doug Auwarter (drums) of Sons of Brasil, as well as Matt Hopper (guitar) and Gerald Spaits (upright bass).
Hagenbach is unconcerned. She's played with all of them at some point along her journey, the beginning of which schooled her in the ability to sit in with anyone and let the music flow.
The North Kansas City native, the seventh of eight children, grew up immersed in music. Her father was a music veteran of the 12th & Vine clubs and her mother was trained in classical piano. Naturally there was always music in the house.
And while as a youngster, Hagenbach preferred listening to contemporary music from the music collections of her brothers and sisters, she wasn't oblivious to the rich heritage of classical and jazz present in her roots.
"There was this photo of Dad playing in a small big band. They were in a giant oyster shell. I didn't really listen to Dad's music then but now they're precious memories."
What began with front porch concerts, garage bands, and gospel choirs became a growing desire for the music she'd been exposed to as a youth. She rediscovered Sarah Vaughn, Miles Davis, and Shirley Horn, at times moved to tears.
"It was a religious experience," Hagenbach recalls.
She decided she wanted to learn how to sing jazz, scouting out and attending weekly Saturday afternoon jam sessions, honing her skills, gauging crowd reactions and learning how to work an audience.
She spent several years juggling music with full-time modeling until she decided to dedicate herself completely to being a jazz chanteuse. She incorporated and founded Amazon Records and released her debut album, Come Fly With Me in 1994 and hasn't stopped since.
Her newest album, inspired by the works of Henry Mancini, Michel Legrand, and Johnny Mandel called The Way They Make Me Feel, was released on Resonance Records on October 13. She plans to celebrate with a return to Jardine's for a release party on November 6.
So what's next for a woman so self-possessed and in control of her own destiny?
Hagenbach explains that she's been concentrating more on songwriting. Last October, two of her original tunes were used in "Last Will" a new film starring Tom Berenger and Tatum O'Neal. Hagenbach herself makes an appearance, fronting the band in a wedding scene.
"Every fifteen or so years, I like to reinvent myself," says Hagenbach.
It's plain to see that smitten Kansas City audiences are willing to go along for the ride.
Review:
Angela Hagenbach
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Jardine's Restaurant and Jazz Club
4536 Main St., Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-6480 or online at www.jardines4jazz.com or www.amazonrecords.com
Preview:
The Way They Make Me Feel
CD Release Party
Friday, November 6 at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Jardine's Restaurant and Jazz Club
4536 Main St., Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-6480 or online at www.jardines4jazz.com or www.amazonrecords.com
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