This first release from the new Routes label run by bassist Ron Miller is self-described as Thoroughly Modern Versions of Jazz Classics Made Famous by Chet Baker. Conceived as both a tribute to the late jazz trumpeter and vocalist and an exploration of Baker's impact on rock, the disc is a real sleeper. Miller assembled an ace New York jazz combo and recruited four sympathetic rockers to perform tunes Baker frequently sang.

The best known of Miller's four vocalists is Alex Chilton, whose jaunts through "That Old Feeling," "Look for the Silver Lining" and "Like Someone in Love" are revelations. As cool as Baker, as intimate as Sinatra and at least as musicianly as any male jazz singer currently active, Chilton reveals a previously hidden dimension to his talent. The other male vocalist is James White, who as James Chance was leader of the Contortions and was the first rocker to combine punk, funk and free jazz effectively. Absent from records for far too long, White is the album's most radically exploratory performer, but he isn't just experimenting; he takes chances, and they work.

Angel Torsen, leader of the L.A. metal-funk band Angel and the Trance, brings a finely tuned, breathy sensuality to her numbers. Adele Bertei, a singer-songwriter whose first vehicle was New York's all-women punk band the Bloods, goes straight for the torch. She smolders more than burns, an approach that fits the Chet Baker connection hand in glove.

Are most jazz singers seriously over-rated as vocal musicians, or are these four diverse rock and pop artists just superb singers, no matter what the setting? Either way, this innovative but eminently listenable disc is both an appropriate Chet Baker tribute and an exquisitely faceted gem in its own right.

Imagination is available from New Routes, 30 Bank Street, New York, NY 10014. (RS 618)

ROBERT PALMER