Stephanie Haynes (d. 2015) was an American jazz singer, renowned for her beautiful voice and her extensive jazz, pop and American songbook repertoire of over 400 tunes.[1] She has been called one of the world's most underrated jazz singers.[2]
Haynes studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she was trained in flute playing as she had thoughts of becoming a classical flautist.[3] Once she started to meet jazz musicians however, she became interested in the genre. When asked if she could sing, she started to do so with a repertoire of only two songs.[4]
By the late 1960s, Haynes was performing in jazz clubs in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[4] After a short period singing with a pop group, she moved to Orange County, California to sing jazz again, often with the pianist Kent Glenn.[5] From the early 1980s onwards, Haynes appeared regularly in Los Angeles and Orange County clubs with the Cedar Walton Trio.[6] and elsewhere with Daniel May.[7] In the 1990s, she had a busy touring schedule[4] and started working with the pianist Dave Mackay.[8][9] Mackay also worked with saxophonist Sonny Stitt, trumpeters Chet Baker and Don Ellis and vocalists Vicki Hamilton and Bill Henderson.
Mackay said of Haynes, "She has a beautiful, full voice and can also get down and be very funky. She's a very creative singer who brings new things to old tunes every time she does them. She takes the music to a different place."[10]
In 1993, Haynes established her own recording label called Why Not Records and recorded an album with Dave Mackay at Daniel May's studio.[10] In the 1990s, Haynes also sang with bassist-composer Jack Prather's quintet called Bopsicle.[11] Bopsicle recorded an album with Why Not Records.[12]
In 2012, after a break, Haynes was back singing in jazz clubs such as Vitello's[13] and towards the end of her life in 2013 sang at Newport Beach.[14]
Haynes was born in Glendale, California. She married and had a son around 1969. She later divorced and remarried to percussionist Steve Gutierrez.[17][18]
