Haynes’ Voice Hasn’t Failed Her

Ask Stephanie Haynes about the state of jazz singing these days, and she responds with a pause, a noncommittal murmur and a couple more hesitations before answering.

“Well, it’s not exactly what I’d like to hear,” she says. “And when Teri Thornton died, it took away a good part of the quality singing that was left.”

Haynes typically doesn’t elect to mention that her singing, highly praised by critics for years, continues to be one of the great pleasures of the genre. Local jazz fans will have a rare opportunity to hear her Sunday night at DeMario’s in Dana Point. Other Haynes appearances this year have been in short supply, in part because she spent five weeks working at an island resort in Thailand.

“Most of the people who came there had a lot more interest in going to discos and getting into the seamy night life than they did in hearing jazz,” she recalls. “So I can’t say it was one of the highlights of my career, even though I did get to see a bit of the country.”

At the moment, in fact, Haynes feels uncertain about her career overall, and explains that she is at a transformative point in her life.

A cancer survivor, she says she’s now free of symptoms.

“I think,” she adds, “that going through the experience of having cancer and having to deal with it gave me a somewhat different perspective on what I was doing.

“I started out in music with an interest in a lot of things--Brazilian jazz and, especially, rhythm and blues, among them. But then I spent years learning about 600 tunes from the Great American Songbook. And when I was going through my cancer recovery, I began to feel that the musical view was too limited.”

Haynes also has been bothered by the difficulty in finding compatible musical settings. Lacking a major-label record contract, she--like so many other talented jazz artists--has been obliged to pick up gigs where she can, rather than work with prime players in major venues.

“That’s tough,” she says. “It tends to limit you in terms of what you can do, and you find yourself losing touch with the things that got you into the music in the first place.”

So she is currently examining other options. A move to Las Vegas is a possibility, in part because her husband is a chef as well as a drummer, and the opportunities for his profession in the burgeoning Vegas economy look bright.

“I’m not sure what I’ll do if we make the move,” Haynes says, adding, with a chuckle, “but maybe I’ll just be content to sing in a church choir.”

For someone with her remarkable ability to bring life and imagination to a song, that seems an unlikely possibility. Despite her current unhappiness with the state of the music business, Haynes is one of the jazz world’s treasures. And it would be a shame if she abandoned that world before she received the acknowledgment her talent deserves.

“I’m just trying to do what feels right for me, now,” she says. “I know that when I’m working with the kind of musicians who will be with me on Sunday--especially pianist Karen Hammack--singing feels like the right thing to do. But I also know that I need to expand my world, broaden my interests, and approach life with the same kind of enthusiasm I had when I first discovered jazz.”

* Stephanie Haynes sings with the Great American Music Co. on Sunday at DeMario’s, 17 Monarch Bay Plaza, Dana Point. 7 p.m. $15 cover and $15 minimum. (949) 240-9436.