Maryel Epps is at the mike, eyes closed, tambourine beating against her hip, voice climbing to the heavens.

This isn't church. Not by a longshot. This is Sunday brunch on South Beach. Outside, even with the noon sun beating down, you can catch a few stray hedonists finally shuffling home after Saturday night's party. But inside Caviar Kaspia at The Webster on Collins Avenue and 12th Street, Epps is jumping around and belting out songs like she's caught the Holy Ghost at a tent revival. The diners are getting caught up, too, forgetting their South Beach cool. They're clapping their hands, tapping their feet.

``I'm gonna lay down my heavy load, down by the riverside. . . .''

Even the Prada-and-Gucci set sings along.

Bubbly is pouring, and caviar sprinkles everything from eggs and blinis to baked potatoes. And Epps, a South Beach fixture since the mid 1990s, is taking her fans toward a churchy high.

``I love connecting with all those beautiful souls,'' she says over smoked salmon and blinis at Caviar Kaspia just a couple days before she kicked off her new Sunday brunch.

``Gospel is from the gut,'' she says. ``Jazz is supposed to be about free-styling. But to me nothing is more free than gospel. It feels great when you can come up out of yourself, when, song-wise, you're not contrived or controlled. For me to be able to transmit the joy of it to other people, that's the blessing.''

She starts a low, powerful humming in the empty restaurant, using the music on the sound system as background. It's some dance-beat electronica, but she's just turned it soulful.

``What's so rewarding to me is, sometimes you see some serious executive being dragged to one of my gospel brunches, maybe by his wife and daughter,'' Epps says. ``The executive doesn't want to be there. The wife and daughter are there because they heard it was the trendy place to be. But before you know it, the women are hollerin' Amens and clapping their hands. And the executive maybe is tapping his feet under the table. Or maybe he keeps his cool, but he comes over afterward, and he says, `I really enjoyed that.' And you know you've surprised him, and you've won him over.''

Epps was born in the Northeast and raised between colonial Virginia and New York. In Virginia, she took a few music lessons from Bruce Hornsby's mom, she says. Epps' aunt had worked for the Hornsbys, and both families remained tight over the years.

``We knew her as Mimi Epps,'' University of Miami alum Hornsby says from his home in Williamsburg. ``She is an old family friend. My mom worked with her informally. I remember her being over a couple of times.''

She has been spreading her magic around South Florida since 1994, when she took a break from her successful gospel brunches at the famed Lola's in New York to do a three-month gig at the just-opened Van Dome nightclub on Washington Avenue and 15th Street.

``When I got to South Beach, and I saw all that pink and all that ocean, it was over. I knew I was staying. And I'm still here, living one block from the ocean. I put every inch of this big beautiful body in a pretty bathing suit, and I get in the water every time I can,'' says Epps, who, after Van Dome, did a spirited gospel brunch at the jam-packed WPA restaurant on Washington Avenue and later did the show at the Astor Hotel.

HIGH PRAISE

``I love her. I was at WPA the first time she performed, and I have followed her everywhere,'' says Michael Aller, Miami Beach tourism and protocol chief. ``She has performed The Star Spangled Banner at so many city events. She is just a powerhouse. And when she performs, she never lets you down. She just has the biggest heart.''

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