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Angela hits town
 "Man,
do you know Angela is six feet one inch tall! Man, what
a woman. And what a singer." That's trumpet
player Jehangir giving a personal introduction
to this top Brazillian singer from Kansas city. Angela
Hagenbach was in Pune to play at the Jazz Garden
along with the Mumbai band Nexus. "Angela
was on a trip to Mumbai for Jazz Yatra. The Yatra got
postponed, and even though Angela has a packed schedule,
she decided to make it to Pune," explains Homi
of the Jazz Garden.
 A
great looker, Angela could easily pass of as a model.
"Oh yeah, I did modelling for a while, but then
I heard Sarah Vaughan singing Black Coffee and that
was it, I opted to tread the 'jazzy' way," she
croones. She immediately joined a gospel choir and soon
after turned to Jazz. That was way back in 1986. There
was no looking back for Angela's lush contralto tracing
nearly three octaves. Angela sings everything from straight-ahead
jazz and blues to sensual and rhythmic Latin Jazz. And
not satisfied with just all this, she formed Amazon
Records in 1994 through which she cut four of her albums.
 Backing
her husky vocals was Louis Banks and his boys
from Nexus. Banks did his jazz gyrations on the
keys, which Angela crooned out. With 17-year-old Sheldon
D'Silva on the Bass, Sangeeet Haldipur on the Keyboards
and the 16-year-old drummer Gino Banks, son of Louis
Banks, the band packed a lot of punch to the show.
Tinku, a serious Jazz fanatic sitting bang in front
of the stage is mesmerised with Angela's
effortless agility and sensuality ."Angela baby,
don't stop, don't stop, just go on baby," he
pleads.
No wonder Jazz critic Mickey Coalwell has high
praise for Angela "Good jazz singers are rare,
Hagenbach is more than just good, she's extraordinary."
Angela, we hope you could come back to Pune for another
round. A faint sound comes and fades into the night
"Angela baby, don't stop, don't stop, just go
on."
Text and Photographs by Harikrishna
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