JAZZ SPOTLIGHT : Soulful Standards, Different Diva : * * 1/2 ETTA JAMES “Time After Time” <i> Private Music</i> : * * * KATHLEEN BATTLE “So Many Stars” <i> Sony Classical</i>

The capacity of jazz to provide a nourishing source of creative sustenance for performers of almost every imaginable style is a constant wonder. Here are two divas who are rooted in dramatically different worlds--Battle in opera and classical singing, James in blues and R & B--yet each discovers a distinctive way to connect with at least a few of the fundamentals of jazz.

James, of course, has a more direct relationship. And there was a certain irony in the fact that, after decades of activity in other arenas, she won her first Grammy last year for a recording of songs associated with Billie Holiday. This time out, she has simply chosen a group of standards familiar to jazz audiences. Among them: “The Nearness of You,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Night and Day” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.” James describes the songs as being “tightly wound up with my past” and expressions of her “kinship to jazz . . . that won’t go away.”

Despite the kinship, her interpretations have a lot more to do with the inflections of blues and gospel than they do with jazz phrasing. In that sense, James is not unlike the younger jazz singers who have adapted extensive melismatic vocalizing--melodies that extend the syllables of a word over several notes--into a form of improvisation. It has almost nothing to do with the swing and momentum one identifies with jazz, but for the moment it’s fashionable, and James does it as well as anyone.

Her generally monochromatic timbre and straightforward readings of the lyrics, however, don’t bring very much that is new to these tunes. And, even though such fine players as Cedar Walton and John Clayton are in her backup band, the accompaniments sound surprisingly unrehearsed and lackluster.

Battle approaches her recording from a different perspective. By limiting her program to spirituals, folk melodies and a couple of classical themes, she bypasses comparison with jazz singers performing standard ballads. And by essentially sticking to doing what she does best--the careful, controlled articulation of melody--she benefits from the advantages of a jazz environment without having to alter her own musical character.

Battle has a ravishing sound (especially in her upper head tones) that blends nicely here and there with the saxophones of Grover Washington Jr. and Antonio Hart. And some lovely passages are also contributed by Christian McBride on bass, Cyrus Chestnut on piano and James Carter on bass clarinet.

What results is an offbeat coupling between a disparate pair of styles that somehow manage to live together happily ever after.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good, recommended), four stars (excellent).