Poetry of Love

Angela Hagenbach | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 20, 2004)
• Original Release Date: November 9, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Amazon Records®
• ASIN: B000139TEO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #288,382 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

ANGELA HAGENBACH POETRY OF LOVE AMAZON RECORDS ARCD-2822

Singer/songwriter Angela Hagenbach bridges the gap between contemporary and classic jazz on Poetry of Love. The album includes ten tunes dealing with the many facets of romance on the star-studded disc featuring special guest appearances by Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath and others.

The music begins with Hagenbach’s sensuous reading of Tell Me About It, the beautiful bossa by Michael Franks from his 1983 Passion Fruit date. This sexy rendering will popularize Hagenbach and her ensemble with a wider audience.

Angela’s arrangement of I Can’t Believe You’re In Love With Me is hip and playfully supported by the swinging Nat King Cole styled New York rhythm- section reminiscent of the sophisticated, unabashed pleasure seeking of the Cotton Club jazz era.

Bittersweet is an original poignant bossa nova, bridging two free verse poems into a single passionate lyric full of autumnal imagery, remarkably rendered by Hagenbach.

Tenor great Jimmy Heath joins Hagenbach and her east-coast rhythm section for a heartrending reading of the romantic classic Never Let Me Go.

Dark Dreams, another original and poem turned song a serpentine sonnet set to an Afro Cuban beat. A dream induced introduction swells into a swinging Latin line offering an innate perception of the lyric.

Trumpeter emeritus and master mumbler, Clark Terry is Hagenbach’s very special guest on the Blues Are Brewin’. Angela alternately eschews her usually superlative articulation to engage in a hilarious historic dialogue with the great C.T. The two manage to mangle the English language to great effect.

Cole Porter’s I’ve Got You Under My Skin flirts rhythmically between Brazilian and straight-ahead sections and the overall mood of the music is alluring and begs to be heard again and again.

On You Keep Calling Me, another Hagenbach original, featuring a Pantoum poem (a Malayan interlocking form) over a Bahian afoxé rhythm. The end result floats over a modern melody reminiscent of the best of Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66.

Ironically, Angela takes one of that group’s biggest hits, Michel Legrand’s Watch What Happens, and sings it as a medium straight-ahead swing rather than the popular bossa beat. An excellent vehicle for lyrical vocalizing and some fine scatting.

The date concludes with a slammin’ samba arrangement of It Might As Well Be Spring. It opens with a breezy vocal-pandiero-surdo introduction then the band joins in for a brilliant Brazilian finish to a very exceptional disc.

Mark Bacon, producer/host of Jazz After Dark, KRVS 88.7 FM, says, "Like Sarah Vaughan or Shirley Horn, Angela inhabits a song, and breathes new life into her carefully selected material. Poetry of Love is the answer to the question, ‘Where have all the great jazz vocal records gone?’"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars You May Fall in Love With the "Poetry of Love", September 18, 2010

By 

Gary L. Connely (Hercules, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Poetry of Love (Audio CD)

"Sexy," "sultry," "soulful" - I bet you think that I'm talking about jazz singer Angela Hagenbach's fashion-model-good-looks - but I'm not! I'm talking about her voice!!

Not only does Ms Hagenbach not look like anybody else, she doesn't sound like anybody else either. She has a rich, smokey alto voice with a little growl and grit in the lower register and a beautiful bell-like tone in the upper notes. She swings easily and she loves Brazilian rhythms - which are in ample evidence on the "Poetry of Love" - you'll find everything from a bossa nova groove in "Bittersweet" to an Afro-Cuban beat on "Dark Dreams."

"Poetry of Love" is an interesting mix of standards, songs like "Never Let Me Go," "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "It Might as Well be Spring;" some more obscure songs like Micheal Franks' "Tell Me About It;" and three original compositions by Ms Hagenbach setting poems by Phyllis Becker and Mark Schroer to music.

And what about the band? Ah yes, the band.... Ms Hagenbach is joined by at least 15 musicians, in various combinations, on this ten song set, including some "big name" jazzers: saxmen Don Braden and Jimmy Heath, trumpeter Clark Terry and guitarist Russell Malone - pianists Roger Wilder and James Williams, one or the other of whom is on almost every cut, do particularly nice work - but everybody involved in this project turns in an excellent performance.

The sonics are fine: Ms Hagenbach's voice is front and center and there's plenty of instrumental separation.

Bottom line: If you enjoy main stream vocal jazz with a little Brazilian seasoning - and you're ready for a singer who sounds like nobody else singing today - check out "Poetry of Love."

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars R&R for your soul, September 23, 2005

By 

Jazzy Jazz (Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poetry of Love (Audio CD)

When I first heard this incredible beautiful woman, I couldn't believe my ears! First she grabbed my soul whith her voice, then she took my heart whith her eyes. I can't stop thinking - does this woman really exist?
And why not 5 stars? Only one reason, the songs doesn't really give her voice full space. Don't get me wrong, it's high class tunes, a pleasure to listen to, but they kind of set limits to her voice. The album "Weaver of Dreams" reveal more of the heavenly instrument she is blessed with!

But, the scale 1 to 5 has been changed for me. If this album got a 4 from me, the earlier 4 star album has gone down to 3 stars.

Angela, you are an angel!