CRITICS' PICKS TELEVISION.

Why fight the `Law'?: The veteran on the force, ``Law & Order,'' teams up tonight with its promising rookie partner, ``Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,'' for a two-part episode about abuse of power that has more twists and turns than a Cirque du Soleil performance. Jane Alexander stars as the matriarch of a powerful, politically connected family with a tradition of tragedy, who steps between our heroes (Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay of ``SVU,'' Jerry Orbach and Jesse L. Martin of ``L&O'') and her daughter, whose role in the murder of a womanizer gets murkier the deeper the investigation probes.

Superficially, the family resembles the Kennedys with its holy triumvirate of political clout, legal woes and untimely deaths, but given the manner with which the family uses its muscle to cow and obfuscate the city's Powers That Be, it's telling that the family's attorney is named Rumsey. Mobsters and hit men are also involved - good thing conspiracy theorist Munch (Richard Belzer) is on hand to sort things out.

Screenwriters Robert Palm, Wendy West and Richard Sweren (working off a story by Palm, Rene Balcer and franchise creator Dick Wolf) keep the narrative convolutions fascinating, sensational and miraculously straightforward. As usual with these shows, the procedural is intelligently gripping from start to finish. ``SVU'' kicks off the story at 9 p.m., followed by ``L&O'' at 10 p.m.

On Sunday, ``The X-Files'' features its own crossover - with the reality series ``Cops'' - and as unlikely as the pairing seems (Fox's classiest show slumming with one of its dodgiest), the eccentric experiment works. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are drawn into the video camera's glare while investigating a paranormal bogeyman of the sort that they're well-acquainted with, though the camera crews decidedly aren't. It's alternately funny and exciting, particularly when Scully tries in vain to avoid the cameras, and when Mulder tries (unsuccessfully) to keep from laughing while interviewing a flamboyant couple named Steve and Edy. It's a clever entry in what has been a sort of middling year for the show.

- David Kronke

Music

Jazz in the spotlight: Too many of jazz's living legends have been missing in action for decades. They pop up at awards banquets and the occasional backroom gig but are otherwise invisible until they surface, alas, in obituaries. Lucky for us, then, to still have active among us peerless bass player Ray Brown, who'll be performing with the Ray Brown Trio at 8 p.m. Saturday at CSUN's Performing Arts Center. A member of Dizzy Gillespie's great ensemble and Oscar Peterson's dazzling trio, Brown was one of be-bop's early visionaries. But he also has supplied suave accompaniment to such essential jazz songbook interpreters as Ella Fitzgerald. The event is free, but reservations are required. Call [phone].

Reed Johnson

Top o' the morning: The Chieftains perhaps are cuddlier, and U2 is, well, louder and moodier. But there are some World Beat connoisseurs who'd swear that Altan is the best Irish band going - period. This traditional acoustic ensemble, which visits UCLA's Royce Hall tonight for a concert at 8, embraces the full array of what, for lack of a better term, is lumped under the rubric ``Celtic music'': keening love ballads; jaunty pagan jigs; graceful, melancholy airs. Lately, they've been weaving in more of their own material, giving lead vocalist Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and her bandmates greater room to let their fiddles, bouzoukis, flutes, guitars and accordions roam. While the group keeps faith with its provincial roots as the pride of County Donegal, it also has become more polished and cosmopolitan, performing with the likes of Allison Krauss and Mary Chapin Carpenter - stateside heirs to the rich musical legacy that Altan so generously celebrates. Tickets are $20, $25 and $30; $11 for UCLA students with ID. Call [phone].

- R.J.

South-oorder beauty: A Santa Monica-born singer of Mexican descent, sultry-voiced Perla Batalla cuts across genres and cultural borders.

Batalla, who sang backup for Leonard Cohen, k.d. lang and others, has an unusually soulful vocal delivery that includes gypsy, folk, gospel and pop influences.

Her second album, ``Mestiza,'' was chosen one of the best discs of 1999 by amazon.com. The warm song cycle traces Mexico's spiritual history.

Batalla, who has been called the ``queen of contralto soul'' with ``one of the finest singing voices on the planet,'' appears Saturday and Sunday at the Getty Center as part of the Sounds of L.A. free concert series.

Concerts are scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Harold M. Williams Auditorium, 1200 Getty Center Drive. Seating is general admission, and performance reservations are honored up to 15 minutes before show time. For required parking and seating reservations, call [phone].

- Fred Shuster

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo: (1) Perla Batalla

Magical music roots

(2) The Irish band Altan performs Friday at UCLA's Royce Hall.

(3) ``X-Files'' agents Scully and Mulder are followed by a ``Cops'' camera crew for a special episode of ``X-Cops'' on Sunday.