Haynes Has Her Standards . . . a Lot of Them : Jazz: The vocalist has a repertoire of 400 to 450 tunes. She will appear with Bopsicle at Vinnie’s in Costa Mesa on Sunday.

Singer Stephanie Haynes has her own version of the popular bumper sticker: “So many tunes, so little time,” she complains good-naturedly.

Haynes has a strong commitment to the American songbook in general, and jazz standards in particular, that’s matched by few other vocalists.

“I’m not going to do a Stevie Wonder number any more. I sang pop tunes when I started working professionally, but never again.”

With a repertoire that she estimates includes between 400 and 450 tunes, the vocalist has come along way since the days she was studying flute at UC Santa Barbara and some of her fellow students asked her to sing with their combo. At the time, she knew only two songs: “Misty” and “Satin Doll.”

“Now people come and hear me because I have a reputation for doing jazz interpretations of standards, and that’s fine with me,” she said in a recent phone conversation from her home in San Juan Capistrano.

“I’ve got to perform material that I can live with, and doing these songs year after year has served me very well. They don’t call them standards for nothing,” she said.

Her favorite composers include Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers. Her 1988 Discovery album, “Here’s That Rainy Day,” (with pianist Cedar Walton), is a collection of tunes from Jimmy Van Heusen. “Cole Porter is a particular favorite of mine. And I love Duke Ellington. If I could, I’d sing every song he ever wrote. Although some of the lyrics are crummy, the music is always great.”

Recently she’s been exploring contemporary Brazilian composers, such as Ivan Lins and Dori Caymmi. “There’s a rhythmic element that makes their writing particularly beautiful,” she says.

With so many songs at her command, Haynes is able to avoid relying only on the chestnuts.

“Sure, you get tired of hearing the same songs over and over again; you get tired of hearing ‘Misty.’ But there’s a whole bunch of other music out there that remains somewhat neglected, like some of the more obscure stuff from Ellington. I don’t know too many people out there who sing Billy Strayhorn’s ‘Lotus Blossom,’ or ‘Day Dream.’

“But most musicians are familiar with them,” she continued, “and for good reason: They’ve got good melodies and chord changes. You don’t have to do anything special to them; they take care of themselves. And people say, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ So when I can, I like bringing these tunes to a wider audience. They’re too good to be ignored.”

In solo gigs, she’s usually accompanied by a guitarist--often Ron Eschete, but last weekend she did a first-time performance with Jim Herschman at Vinnie’s in Costa Mesa.

“Although it has a different flavor, working with a good guitarist is every bit as fulfilling and fun as working with a good pianist. I don’t really do anything different with a guitarist--just swing as hard as I can and do some nice ballads. It’s great doing bossa novas with a guitarist who knows what he’s doing, because they sound so authentic.”

When not doing her own shows, Haynes concentrates on her work with Bopsicle, bassist-composer Jack Prather’s quintet. A trio version of the group performs Sunday at the Costa Mesa Vinnie’s.

“I like Jack’s tunes,” she said. “He’s one of the few composers in the contemporary vein that writes in the style I like. Jack comes out of the Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart tradition, then puts a Dave Frishberg spin on it. His lyrics are very witty.”

Bopsicle--Prather, Haynes, trumpeter Ron Stout, guitarist Mark Waggoner and drummer Charlie Landis--performs the bassist’s tributes to such jazz greats as Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster.

“Jack and I sing together in that Jackie (Cain) and Roy (Kral) style,” she says. “And there’s other material that Jack has written, including a tune called ‘Up the Amazon,’ which is a spoof on environmentalists.”

The group, which appears infrequently in Los Angeles and Orange County clubs, has just finished a recording that it’s begun to shop around. Finding work, whether as a single or with Bopsicle, has increasingly become a challenge.

“The opportunities to perform have been cut way back. I’m really not working as much, maybe three or four gigs a month. . . . The scene is much sparser, and clubs have closed. Maxwell’s is a perfect example,” she says of the Huntington Beach nightspot that recently discontinued jazz.

But Haynes continues to find herself in demand.

She recently appeared at San Diego’s Horton Grand Hotel with pianist Dave Mackay, and she’s been doing one night a month at the Hotel Laguna with guitarist Mark Turnbull.

Orange County-based Holt Recordings released her CD with saxophonist Jack Montrose, “Dawn at Dana Point,” earlier this year.

*Bopsicle, with Jack Prather and Stephanie Haynes, performs Sunday at 3 at Vinnie’s, 270 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa. No cover, two-item minimum. (714) 722-9264.