When Angela Hagenbach began singing publicly in church in the early 1980s, she never imagined she would be inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame in 2024.
She didn’t know that she had been awarded this honor until a friend called to congratulate her.
“I was surprised and thrilled,” Hagenbach said.
She began earning a living by singing in 1990.
“Music was my daily bread. Like most singers and musicians, I grew up in a musical family. My siblings and I had to learn the piano and an instrument of our choice. At seven, I chose the acoustic bass. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. I ended up with the trombone. Although my dad was a professional jazz musician from the 1930s to the 1950s, he retired as a musician before I was born. As the seventh child of eight, I loved my older siblings’ music.”
As a pre-teen, she loved singing and harmonizing with a group of her girlfriends. They would sing together in the marble lobby of the apartment building where one her friend’s parents lived, or in the halls of the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City during the day, or off-season.
“We’d pack a lunch, sneak in the cool summer shade of the auditorium, and run up and down the ramps,” Hagenbach said. “However, ‘sneak’ is not the right word. The workmen saw us but looked the other way. Often, they would join in on our harmonizing or singing bass to the popular tunes played on KPRS.”
She sang and played music with her family on their front porch for their neighbors to enjoy. These musical moments didn’t convince her to aim for a career in music, but in 1989 that all changed.
“I heard Sarah Vaughn sing ‘Black Coffee’ on the radio while driving north on I-435,” Hagenbach said. “It nearly sent me over the railings. I had to pull over to collect myself. I felt an instant kinship with her voice, phrasing style, and genre. I thought, maybe I could…”
Jazz is her favorite genre to sing and she has been a part of the Kansas City music scene for more than 30 years. “I have a robust collection of music that I favor for various situational moods. Some of them include Motown, classical, R&B, World, Soul, Bluegrass, and more.”
In 2001 her national debut recording of ‘Weaver of Dreams’ was released and nominated for a Grammy. “Excited barely expresses how thrilling it was,” Hagenbach said. “It gave me hope and the knowledge that I was on the right track.”
When the song shot to number five on the Gavin Jazz Chart just six weeks after its release, she said she felt accomplished. “It was my national debut, produced and recorded on my record label, Amazon Records. Life became dizzying for a while. I realized that being singled out as a rising star in the limelight was not as glamorous as ‘they’ suggest. It’s hard work, especially without a management team, with publicists and agents, etc.”
While she played trombone for 14 years, when she reached the age of 21 she had to choose between continuing to play the instrument, or earning a living as a model, due to the toll the trombone was taking on her upper lip. She chose modeling and singing.
“My work as a model and musician took me out of the country for the first time,” Hagenbach said. “I had never traveled anywhere without my family before being flown to New York City and later to Morocco for a fashion shoot when I was 19.”
One of the many highlights of her career included performing twice at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Before her performance at the Center, she had not performed outside the Midwest.
She also served two terms as a United States Jazz Ambassador to the world.
“Having done my part as an American citizen in my chosen profession, following in the footsteps of past jazz greats to build bridges through music and culture makes me proud,” Hagenbach said. “In addition to the music, we also did workshops. We taught through the lens of American-made music and the history of jazz born of oppression, with roots and ties to Africa, nurtured and raised up by the people. Music is a universal language. Cultural barriers can be breached with music.”
Opening for Ray Charles in France was also a memorable experience.
“It was a blast. We (my sextet, Musa Nova) were in Marsiac, France, in the Pyrenees Mountains. Ray Charles was in his elder years; I believe it was his last public concert. He was a hoot and a wonder to behold. Unfortunately, he was a tad put out with folks photographing him, making his displeasure known to the audience.”
She has performed in more than 20 countries around the world, including many in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Having met many famous musicians along the way, she has performed, toured, and recorded with Johnnie Mandel, Jimmy Heath, Tamir Hendelman, Larry Koonse, Kuno Schmid, Toots Thieleman, James Williams, Don Braden, and others.
A few years ago she was chosen as first-runner-up in the International Sarah Vaughan Vocal Contest.
As the founder of the Black Ancestors Awareness Campaign, and a fifth-generation descendant of Weston, it has given Hagenbach great joy in knowing how her efforts have given recognition to many Weston residents and their ancestors
“I am overjoyed with the response from the citizens of Weston and the surrounding areas. Weston’s Black history and culture has been devalued and too long overlooked. There is much to be done to bring this history to light. Established in 1837, I have a backlog of Weston history to uncover! It’s challenging, to say the least, but necessary. It’s not just my ancestry or my history, although it was at first. Now, I’m all about procuring my Weston ancestors, neighbors, families, their lives, loves, worship, and educational stories and how it all fits with Weston’s known history, a micro version of America’s history, a call I’m honored to answer; it’s a labor of love. This work takes a village, and the Black Ancestors Awareness Campaign cultivates that village.”
Hagenbach also writes a quarterly Weston Historical Museum column called Resilience in the Face of Adversity in Museum Musing, which is dedicated to Weston’s Black History. She is also working on her manuscript, ‘Folks of Weston’.
With her many experiences and accomplishments, she hopes that her ancestral work will lead her to all the points in her varied genealogical research. “That would be nice. Meeting long-lost relatives, lands, and cultures would be exquisite.”
As a musician, formal model, founder of the Black Ancestors Awareness Campaign, and a student of ancestral research, when asked if she feels proud of her many life achievements, Hagenbach said she tends to not think about it as being proud, but rather being present.
“It gives me joy to achieve my purpose. These moments lift me. I tend to go where my career takes me until I feel pulled in a different direction that seems right and appeases my spirit. There are many paths to excellence, but we only have one life in which to pursue them. I make the most of it, finding my purpose along the way. I’m grateful for the talent, support, and resources that allow me to seize the opportunities within my reach and even surpass them. I want to leave something meaningful behind that can be built upon.”
Her best advice for a young person who dreams of a career as a musician, is, “Don’t quit your day job. Learn your craft while you earn. Define what you want to pursue clearly, then plan your work and work your plan. Know yourself and be sincere. Listen to your flavor of live and recorded music and practice, practice, practice.”