THE Jam never found a substantial audience in the United States, but in England it was the most popular rock group of the late 1970's and early 80's. Paul Weller, the Jam's singer, songwriter and guitarist, was widely admired, by critics as well as fans, for his outspoken support of nuclear disarmament and his idealist populism.
Mr. Weller disbanded the Jam early in 1983, and a few months later he introduced a new project, the Style Council. This group, which consists of Mr. Weller, the keyboard player Mick Talbot, and a shifting cast of friends, enjoyed six top-10 singles in Britain in its first year of operation. But rock fans who had idolized the Jam interpreted the Style Council's fusion of soul, pop, jazz and mood music as a betrayal of principles. Where were the screaming guitars and hard cutting edge that had made the Jam so exciting?
''During the last year of the Jam, I kept getting more and more disillusioned with rock music,'' Mr. Weller said recently. He was in New York with the Style Council's traveling road show, which gave two performances at the Savoy last weekend. ''The rock sound just bores me,'' he continued. ''I just don't think it means anything anymore. When you turn on the radio, the records all sound the same. All those clanging guitars. I just got sick of it.''
According to the 26-year-old Mr. Weller, the Style Council represents a return to his musical roots. ''When the Jam started,'' he said, ''when we used to play in clubs before we made records, most of our set was our versions of Stax and Motown soul records. When I started to write more, the Jam established its own sound. But on our last album, we tried to get back to that rhythm-and-blues thing. I regained my early enthusiasm for that kind of music, and when we dissolved the Jam I got together with Mick Talbot, who has a background similar to mine, and similar tastes.''
At the Savoy last Thursday, Mr. Weller, Mr. Talbot and seven associates gave an engaging and inspired performance. The two principal Style Councillors and the vocalist Jaye Williamson blended their voices in rich harmonies that recalled gospel music without sounding overtly derivative, and two horn players gave the group the brassy punch of a Southern soul band. Now that he is not shouting out his vocals over the roar of a heavily amplified guitar, Mr. Weller is singing more fluidly and expressively. But he is still an energetic performer, and his fervor seemed to convert even those audience members who began the evening shouting for old Jam tunes.
The songs that Mr. Weller is writing these days are sometimes reminiscent of early Motown, but they are not as superficially buoyant as they seem. ''The Whole Point of No Return,'' the most innocuous-sounding tune on the Style Council's first American album, ''My Ever Changing Moods'' (Geffen), protests in its lyric that ''the law's made by and for the rich,'' and other lyrics are equally biting. And in a brief essay on the album's inner sleeve, Mr. Weller notes, ''Here we are in the 20th century with all that the past has taught us, and yet we still can't guarantee a future!'' The Jam's rock sound may be a thing of the past, but Mr. Weller's idealism remains intact.
Perhaps the most serious charge that has been directed at the Style Council by disillusioned Jam fans is that the group is simply turning out carbon copies of 1960's soul sounds. It would be more accurate to say that the group is attempting to revive the spirit of 60's soul music. On record and in person, the group puts a premium on spontaneity as expression.
''They were going to add a percussionist for this tour,'' a friend of the band recalled, ''but when this hotshot percussionist arrived talking about charging $400 a day, they told him to forget it. Paul knew that one of the roadies plays percussion, so they simply drafted him into the band. He had never played on a stage before.'' Mr. Weller laughed when the story was mentioned. ''We use as many young musicians as possible,'' he said, ''so we'll have that enthusiasm.''
At the Savoy, Mr. Weller's vocals were as finely nuanced as his performances on the album; like the arrangements, they paid homage to classic soul without copying specific styles or phrasing. ''Mick and I are both fans of Stax and Motown music and have a sort of reverence for it,'' Mr. Weller said. ''So the last thing we want to do is a rehash of it. A lot of white bands these days try to sound black, and people accept it because they don't hear much music these days that isn't mediocre. We'd like to create music that's more lasting, music that will still sound as good 20 years from now as the best soul music from the 1960's sounds today.''