No Applause Necessary, Just ‘Throw’ Energy : Jazz: Singer-pianist Yve Evans, who plays Sunday at Maxwell’s, says the audience provides some of the ‘divine’ power that she puts into her music.

Yve Evans possesses one of the most energetic voices on the West Coast today. She can awaken even the most overplayed jazz or pop standard with a supple tone and a clever sense of phrasing. Although her voice can be a veritable playground of swings and slides, she works without catchy verbal gimmicks or wild dynamic explosions. She simply relies on the strength and beauty of her voice.

The singer-pianist, who appears Sunday at Maxwell’s leading a trio, says this energy that characterizes her performances comes from two sources, “both divine.”

“Energy comes from heaven,” she explained earlier this week by phone from her home in San Bernardino. “Heaven harbors all our spirits, all the good things people have. I do my best not to waste the kind of energy it’s given me.”

The other source is less ethereal but still important to a performer: the audience. “I feel it coming from them, and they also give back the energy I’ve given to them. It doesn’t have to be in the form of applause. It can be a foot tap, a nod or even silence.”

Her goal on stage, she says, is “to make people’s spirits dance.”

The key she uses to unlock this kind of reaction is an emphasis on lyrics. “Contemporary music sometimes disregards the presentation of a tune’s lyric. I think the words are as important, if not more important, than the music itself. I believe the lyric is the message and the music is the vehicle.”

Her version of “Satin Doll” is a good example. In previous performances, Evans has messed with the song’s rhythm, staggering the familiar lines in unexpected ways and putting accents in unfamiliar places. She might even toy with the words, adding new ones, deleting others.

“I work with the lyric just enough to imprint it on people’s memories,” she says. “People will come up to me and say, ‘I never knew what that song said before, I never heard it done that way,’ and they remember it. It releases a different chemical, helps them to remember their first love or the senior prom or some good thing. And that’s what jazz is all about: the spontaneous joy of making the music alive.”

Evans, who was born in El Paso, Tex., says she couldn’t avoid being around music while growing up. “My mother was a gospel singer. Our family sang everywhere, even in the car when we traveled. It was our activity together, music was the tie that binds. I learned early that when you felt bad, music could make you feel better.”

She learned to play the piano at 9 while rehabilitating from injuries she sustained after being struck by a car. “The only time my mother would let me sit up while I was recovering was to play the piano, first for 10 minutes, then for 20. Then I squeezed an hour out of it. It could be painful, but the music always made me feel better. That’s when I decided that this is the life for me.”

In 1965, while her family was in Germany--her father was stationed there with the Army--Evans, who had been singing in church and school choirs, was hired to work in Spain with a stage band. She was 13.

“The booker thought I was kind of a novelty because I sounded white and was black. I would interpret songs even then. I wasn’t a great singer, but I had a good feeling for the music. I could also play piano and sing at the same time, which people found amazing.”

A turning point came in 1971, while she was enrolled at UC Irvine as a music and drama major. “I went to Lake Tahoe to see Sassy (Sarah VaughanQ) when she was making her comeback, and it changed my life. I just loved her. I thought to myself, ‘I could do this.’ ”

In addition to Vaughan, Evans cites June Christy as a major inspiration. “I loved her, and was able to see her perform live, though I didn’t have any of the albums. I sang three numbers for her when she was at a Newport Beach club once. . . . They threw me out because I was only 20. I swore I’d never sing in another nightclub again. But after I turned 21 I was at it again.”

Most of those dates were in Orange County, including dates at the Quiet Cannon in Dana Point, the White Horse in Newport Beach and the Golden Sail in Huntington Beach. “I was living in Irvine and doing singles all over the county. I was the baby, and everybody looked out for me.”

She stopped performing “to become Gladys Homemaker” after being married in 1975, then returned to singing in 1979. Another three-year break came when her daughter was born in ’82. That’s when her parents got involved with her career.

“They saw how important it was for me, and they have been caring almost exclusively for my daughter since 1986. That releases me to total creativity. I’m very grateful for that; everybody doesn’t have the benefit of that kind of freedom. I’d like to see some bona fide notoriety while my parents are still young enough to appreciate it.”

With a lively album out on her own Note-Worthy Music label, “4 Jaz C Me,” another due next year that concentrates on the blues, and regular club dates in both Los Angeles and Orange counties, Evans’ parents may see that notoriety yet.

And when that big-time success comes, it will come from the conviction she shows on stage. “When I say ‘Jazz is my life,’ I mean jazz is my life. Anything I deliver vocally, musically has to be part of my life fiber. I want people to believe I’ve been there.”

Yve Evans appears Sunday at 4 and 6 p.m. with bassist Brad Bobo and drummer Leon Joyce Jr. at Maxwell’s By the Sea, 317 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. $5 cover, plus $7 food-drink minimum. (714) 536-2555