JAZZ REVIEW : Haynes Hits Right Notes With Rhythmic, Appealing Style

LONG BEACH — Stephanie Haynes is one very appealing singer.

The Orange County resident has a marvelous voice, a warm, personable alto that’s distinctively her own. She chooses terrific tunes, which she performs terrifically, remaining true to the songs’ emotional intentions and musical constructs, yet not reluctant to nudge them this way or that to suit her feel-free-to-fool-around jazz-based rhythmic concept. She enunciates clearly, so you can hear every word, and she’s got a dandy ear that keeps the pitch right on target and handles a modulation from A flat to G with nary a slip.

And lastly, she’s very attractive, which, admittedly, has nothing to do with her singing but deserves a mention.

Friday in the cozy back room of Giorgio’s Place (located at the base of the Arco Towers in Long Beach, where singers and trios have been the call for a few months), Haynes brought along all the above qualities and, backed by her regular accompanists--pianist Larry Flahive and bassist Jack Prather, gave listeners an aural treat.

The medium-plus tempoed “The Best Thing for You Would Be Me” proved a lively opener that displayed Haynes’ horn-like approach in her rhythmic choices and found Flahive soloing with stiletto-point, repeated attacks of a single note, bluesy phrases and lines that constantly curved. A slight bossa nova feeling underpinned the subsequent “Deep in a Dream,” and led to Jerome Kern’s “I’m Old Fashioned.”

This evergreen, which was done as colorfully as the purple print dress with a black-and-silver-sequin-embroidered shoulders that Haynes wore, found the singer extending some of her phrases like pulled taffy, so that a word such as rain became ray aa ain . On still other passages her words were separated as crisply as the texture of fresh cucumber slices.

The slow-as-a-traffic-crawl take of the Ellington-Strayhorn classic, “Something to Live For,” was replete with a spine-tingling verse, and Jobim’s “No More Blues” included welcome scat phrasing in a generally buoyant rendition.

Other highlights: a happy original, “In Walked Monk,” where Prather added a resilient second voice, and a perky closer, Weill-Nash’s “Speak Low.”

Flahive (pronounced Flay-hive) and the bassist distinguished themselves not only in their ever-at-the-ready support for Haynes, but in three opening duo tunes, among them a hearty “Alone Together” and “For All We Know,” where the pianist caressed the melody as if he were slow dancing with his one and only.

Haynes, a professional for 20 years and an Orange County resident for about 15, is a rare vocalist, and in a region that is known for its fine singers, she should be heard more often.

Stephanie Haynes plays Sundays from 3 to 7 p.m. at C’est La Vie, 373 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. Information: (714) 497-5100.