Straight Ahead!; Off Abbey Road

Barbara Dennerlein Straight Ahead! (Enja; CD, T, bonus tracks on CD) Mike Westbrook Band Off Abbey Road (Tip Toe; CD, T) Europe not only records jazz- it produces fascinating composers and instrumentalists who are too little known here. Dennerlein, a promising 25-year-old German organist with eight years' professional experience, owes much to Jimmy Smith. Her blues playing is especially fine, as witnessed by her laid-back groove on ''Stormy Weather Blues,'' exchanges with guitarist Mitch Watkins on ''Bad and Blue,'' and a rippling version of Horace Silver's ''Opus de Funk.'' Her inclination toward more advanced styles is evident in her choice of sidemen-trombonist Ray Anderson and drummer Ronnie Burrage-but it diffuses her own more conservative strengths. B Westbrook is Britain's most ambitious and proficient jazz composer and ! bandleader. His work includes musical settings for William Blake and Hermann Hesse and adaptations of Duke Ellington and Gioachino Rossini. The Beatles were a logical next step. His faithful and wonderfully good-humored rendition of their 1969 album Abbey Road underscores its music-hall whimsy and ravishing melodies. The entire 75-minute performance was recorded in concert at Switzerland's 1989 Willisau Jazz Festival by eight musicians, including singers Phil Minton and Kaye Westbrook. Andy Grappa's tuba is a show in itself. Note: The Beatles purists I've played it for are as delighted as I am. A-