By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

In her early years, before Patricia Barber was a full-time Blue Note Records artist, the jazz goddess released some well-respected albums on the independent Premonition Records label. These albums were notable for the way Barber transformed familiar pop tunes including “Ode To Billy Joe,” “The Fool on the Hill” and even “You Are My Sunshine” into sultry sensations that practically emitted steam.

When it came to Barber’s unsurpassed taste in cover tunes, the out jazz diva left the genders intact on songs such as “She’s A Lady,” “Light My Fire” and “Black Magic Woman,” adding to her mystique as a performer. The handsomely packaged triple-disc box set “The Premonition Years: 1994-2002” (Premonition) revisits the albums from that period on discs labeled “Pop Songs” (featuring the aforementioned titles), “Standards” (precisely what it sounds like with tracks ranging from “So In Love” to “Alfie” to “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”) and, finally, “Originals” (a dozen Barber compositions including “Touch of Trash,” “I Could Eat Your Words” and “If This Isn’t Jazz”), providing another way of listening to this important artist.

As interpreters of standards go, Rufus Wainwright is in a class by himself. Just to prove it he performs “the entire classic album of Judy Garland’s famous 1961 concert on the double-disc “Rufus does Judy at Carnegie Hall” (Geffen). Recorded June 14-15, 2006, Wainwright dives headfirst into the music, peppering it here and there with his own personal touches and comments, but remaining faithful enough to the original source material that he even reproduces Garland’s stumbles, most notoriously on “You Go To My Head,” fittingly enough, on which the frail diva lost her place in the song, and sang a line that went, “you go to my head/and I forgot the God-darn words…”

Rufus, who has long had a reputation for having first-rate guest artists on his CDs as well as performing with him in concert doesn’t disappoint here—he’s joined by his sister Martha Wainwright on “Stormy Weather,” his mother Kate McGarrigle (to whom he dedicates “How Long Has This Been Going On”) on “Over The Rainbow” (be sure to read what she wrote in the liner notes) and Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft on “After You’ve Gone.”

Fans of Rufus Wainwright, Antony and the Johnsons and also the Dresden Dolls may find much to admire on “Safe Inside the Day” (Drag City) by Baby Dee. Alternately lush and stripped-down orchestrations on these chamber cabaret tunes by transgender musician Baby Dee conjure a vague sense of nostalgia while never losing grasp of their contemporary nature. “A Compass of the Light” and “Teeth Are The Only Bones That Show” are good examples of this. It also probably ups the ante on Baby Dee’s indie cred and hipness scale having guest musicians such as Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Andrew WK (yes, you read that right) performing on the disc.

With enough brass and vibes to make a young Herb Alpert salivate, queer duo Koop kicks off their latest album, “Koop Islands” (Atlantic) with the seductive “Koop Island Blues,” featuring Ane Brun on lead vocals. Followed, as it is, by the evocative “Come To Me,” it shouldn’t take the listener long to realize that they only need to pack flip-flops, shorts and a loose-fitting T-shirt for this island-hopping disc, because they’re going to be doing some dancing. The Gene Krupa-meets-Benny Goodman “Forces…Darling” swings, man, while “I See A Different You” and “Let’s Elope” add a Latin kick. Clearly, retro revivalists Amy Winehouse, Nicole Atkins and Richard Hawley need to make space on their islands for Sweden’s Koop.

From Iceland, ambient and atmospheric specialists Sigur Ros, led by out front man Jonsi (Birgisson), return with “Hvarf/Heim” (XL), a joining of two EPs. In addition to glorious live acoustic versions of “Samskeyti” (from 2002’s “( )”) and “Agætis Byrjum” (from ’99’s disc of the same name), the album also consists of harder-edged newly recorded versions of the songs “Salka,” the U2-esque “Hljómalind” and “I Gær,” which, if nothing else, demonstrates their versatility.

Thanks to the alternative-radio hit single, “Not An Addict,” and the raw intensity of her vocals, Sarah Bettens, the queer half of the sibling duo K’s Choice, is probably familiar to some. Bettens went solo with her year 2005 disc “Scream,” and now follows it up with the wonderful “Shine” (Cocoon). If it never occurred to you before how similar the quality of her voice is to Indigo Girl Amy Ray’s, then just listen to her faithful cover of Ray’s “Put It Out For Good.” “Daddy’s Gun” a powerful plea for gun control, is followed by “Just Another Day” and “Feel Me Break,” which examine different aspects of love. Other radiant tracks include “Rescue Me,” “Pave The Way,” “It’s Alright” and “The Soldier Song.”