JAZZ REVIEWS : Wilkinson’s the Scat’s Meow : The singer proves an inventive, sometimes-mischievous stylist who likes to toy with rhythm and temperament.

It may have been stormy outside, but it was all blue skies and rainbows Sunday inside El Matador, where singer Sunny Wilkinson brightened up a cloudy day with her playful, sometimes-mischievous vocal style.

In a program that roamed through ballads, be-bop and bossa nova, Wilkinson proved to be an inventive stylist who likes to toy with a tune’s rhythm and temperament. And she has the vocal goods to keep things from sounding as if she’s just playing around.

Though her voice showed respectable range, pitch and character, Wilkinson’s rhythmic treatments were most impressive. On-the-beat scat lines that began in her voice’s middle range developed into offbeat statements that hopscotched across the scale. She was especially adept at dancing over the changes, sometimes drawing one chord into another from a single, seamless line. During “If I Were a Bell,” she hit all the lyric’s rhythmic high-points with “dings,” “dongs” and assorted scat.

The singer’s instrumental foil in these proceedings was Frank Potenza, a guitarist who, though best known for his electric work, played acoustic in accompaniment here. He also infrequently added synthesizer tones through his instrument, thanks to a set of foot pedals that switched him into his electronics. Potenza’s flowing mix of chords and single-note accents served as a sounding board for the singer’s rhythmic play, and some of the evening’s best moments came when the two worked as a duo.

The pair teamed on their own fast-paced arrangement of “I’ve Got Rhythm” and began to work in tunes with the same, familiar chord changes. First to surface was Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo,” followed by Thelonious Monk’s “Rhythm-A-Ning,” which Potenza decorated with a line from “Blue Gardenia.” At one point, the two even worked in a chorus of “The Flintstones” theme for good measure.

With bassist Luther Hughes and drummer David Dirge joining the duo, Wilkinson worked selections from Antonio Carlos Jobim, Horace Silver and Dori Caymmi. Her scat was especially percussive during Caymmi’s “Obsession,” her voice particularly warm on “You’ve Changed” and Bob Hilliard and Sammy Fain’s “Alice in Wonderland.” She showed strength, breath and an ability to leapfrog around the scale during Silver’s “Opus du Funk.” During Milton Nascimento’s ballad “Bridges,” she showed heart and soul as well.

Now that Sundays at El Matador have become a night for vocalists (just as Wednesdays have become big-band night), it seemed appropriate that singer Dewey Erney was coaxed from the audience to open the second set with an enthusiastic version of “Doodlin’.” Vocalist Jack Wood followed, putting his voice to a bossa nova-paced “On a Clear Day.”

But the night clearly belonged to Wilkinson. The singer, who teaches at Cal State Northridge and the Dick Grove School of Music, performs frequently around Los Angeles and is working on her second recording, this time with percussionist Mike Shapiro. After Sunday’s performance, here’s hoping that she becomes a regular in Orange County as well.