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Tuesday, September 24, 2013 Page 3C Entertainment For more Living coverage, including reviews and calendars, go to DemocratandChronicle.comLiving DemocratandChronicle.com Critics playlist What our experts are listening to ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ROOTS WISE UP GHOST AND OTHER SONGS 2013. The question often arises: What music does a middle-aged critic listen to? Elvis Costello shouldn't be a surprise. The follow-up question often is, what rap does a middle-aged white critic listen to? The Roots shouldn't be a surprise. As the wide-ranging sonics of their careers suggest, both Costello and The Roots' driving force, drummer are music consumers who own fantastic record collections of wildly diverse styles. Quite frankly, this is more Costello's record, as Blackthought isn't rapping, it's Costello singing.

There's so much going in here, too much at times, that you can't help but think of Costello's Mighty Like a Rose Period, with songs so dense you had to listen with the living-room windows thrown wide open. I don't suppose I'll ever get over Costello's youthful days of "Watching the Detectives," but at least I wasn't bored here. TAMAR BRAXTON LOVE AND WAR. Say "Braxton" to fans and odds are they will think However, the hottest Braxton on the music scene right now is Ta-mar. This is her NCIS star Mark Harmon tried law school and advertising before turning to acting, sonja flemmingassociated press 'NCIS' bucks the trend of losing audience as it ages sophomore CD and her first release since her 2000 debut.

Yes, it has been 13 years since Tamar Braxton released an album. And she knows how to make an entrance after a long absence. She kicks in the door with powerful ballad "Love and War," showing that It doesn't hurt that NCIS maintains an absorbing, go-down-easy recipe of drama, character and humor that no other show is able to match. "We've been successful so far," says series star Mark Harmon with some understatement, "and we keep finding ways to grow it." But don't go laying too much credit for that growth, or any other metric of success, at Harmon's feet. He's the star, of course, playing tormented but intrepid Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Special Agent in Charge of the military's Major Case Response Team.

Harmon is surrounded by a sturdy troupe of actors including fellow charter cast members See NCIS, Page 6C Frazier Moore Associated Press Life comes with few chances to witness a fundamental law being turned on its head. But last season 18.5 million viewers did just that every week, tuning to NCIS to certify it as one of TV's highest-rated shows and, even more impressively, make it a series whose audience has expanded, not shriveled, with age. NCIS, which averaged 11.8 million viewers during its first season in 2003-04, grew by more than a million viewers last year alone. This, of course, contradicts TV's natural order. NCIS (which starts its 11th season at 8 p.m.

Tuesday on WROC-TV (channel 8, seems to have a long-term lease on TV's fountain of youth. she has those Braxton pipes. She knows how to get you moving on the dance floor, too, and she gets you dancing and singing along to "The One." And she keeps you bouncing with the hip-hop-esque "Hot Sugar." Love and War is just the right combinations of beats (such as on "She Did slick production and catchy lyrics. Yup, Toni isn't the only Braxton in the game. KENNY GARRETT Indie rock disc inspired by Kerouac novel Tristessa' PUSHING THE WORLD AWAY.

The excellent altosoprano saxophonist and composer gave this new CD this title because he needed to step back from his daily whirlwind to have time to think as he put these compositions together. However, it song for the tribute, wrote his own lyrics for "She Has to Come Down." He's a Kerouac fan but said he didn't know Tristessa until Sampas contacted him. "I read it and really responded to it," Adams said. "It's a really fun, cool proj ect to do." The disc, released this week by the Boston-area firm Reimagine Music, features 19 singer-songwriters and is named Esperanza: Songs From Jack Kerouac's Tristessa. Esperanza is said to be the real name of the woman who was Kerouac's inspiration for the story.

"Despite what everyone says, there are a lot of people who still read books out there," Adams says. "I hope there's a resurgence of awareness about Kerouac." steen's Nebraska and the Beatles' Rubber Soul. He's also a nephew of Kerouac, who died in 1969. Sampas also produced the documentary One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur and the accompanying album featuring Jay Farrar of Son Volt and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie. The response to those projects encouraged him to further explore the musical possibilities around his uncle's work.

"There's a musicality in both his prose and poetry that worked well," he says. A few of the participating artists followed Sampas' suggestion and recorded songs using the novelist's own words for lyrics. Others were inspired by the story, he said. David Bauder Associated Press Several indie rockers have collaborated on a disc that pays tribute to a Jack Kerouac novel and it's not On the Road. The album, which features artists like The Low Anthem, William Fitzsimmons, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and Tony Dekker of The Great Lake Swimmers, is based on Kerouac's Tristessa, about a drug-addicted Mexican prostitute.

The project was pulled together by Jim Sampas, a producer who has specialized in musical tributes. He has made albums with artists interpreting songs on Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, Bruce Spring doesn't refer to an escape from his world, conceptually, because the music evolves fully from that world: "Hey, Chick" is an upbeat Latin tune in the tradition of Corea's well-known Spanish Heart music; "Chuco's Mambo" is a Cuban romp honoring Chucho Valdes; "J'ouvert," is a Caribbean tune in the Sonny Rollins "St. Thomas" mode; and lovely ballad "Brother Brown" is dedicated to Garrett's long-time pianist, Donald Brown. Garrett had to push the world away to more clearly "see" his world. And fans of thoughtful, tuneful, artful jazz will be appreciative.

A collaboration of musicians pays tribute to the Jack Kerouac novel Tristessa on a new CD. Stanley TWARDOWICZASSOCIATED PRESS Peter Bradley Adams, one of the artists who recorded a Download the new Democrat and Chronicle Tablet App, and take advantage of: Easy access to saved stories Enhanced navigation Intuitive shopping menu More video and interactive features SUpPiy booi HHMBSbH Contact us today at: 1-800-790-9565 or www.DemocratandChronicle.comPEF SPONSORED BY: Democrat an (Chronicle Democrat and Chronide.com.