Joe Jackson: Body And Soul (A&M)

ANYONE WHO'S familiar with the Blue Note albums of the '50s and '60s will appreciate the homage paid by the cover of Joe Jackson's latest. The front is a take-off on a '50s Sonny Rollins album with Jackson assuming the exact same pensive pose with cigarette and sax as Rollins did on the original — even the lettering's the same. The back is a replica of every Blue Note album from about '53 thru '65, down to the row of snapshots at the bottom and the ostensible analytical, but basically partisan, liner notes (the single departure from the Blue Note formula is that the notes writer is unidentified). Letter perfect, and a cute idea. Unfortunately, a clever cover homage is essentially meaningless, especially if the record inside has little or nothing to do with it — and this record has as little to do with Blue Note's vital, classic jazz records as one could imagine.