Kenny Hagood

Kenny "Pancho" Hagood was an American jazz vocalist.

Biography

Hagood was born in Detroit, Michigan, and first sang at the age of 17 with Benny Carter. He sang with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra from 1946 to 1948 and then with Tadd Dameron later in 1948. He recorded two pieces with Thelonious Monk in 1948 and "Darn That Dream" with Miles Davis in 1950. He then moved to Chicago and later Paris.
While living in Paris, he had a short-lived marriage in 1960 to Alice McLeod, who gave birth to their daughter Michelle. However, the marriage broke down due to Hagood's struggles with heroin use, and Alice and Michelle returned to the United States. Alice later married John Coltrane, and Michelle took her stepfather's surname.
Hagood recorded with Guy Lafitte in the 1960s. He moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1965 to 1980. In the early 1980s he returned first to Chicago, and later to the Detroit area.
Singer Joy Villa is Hagood's grandniece.