CRUZ: TIME-DEFYING

Halfway through Friday’s concert at the Greek Theatre, Celia Cruz humbly thanked her fans for helping her earn the latest star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Given the quality of her performance, however, the star seems like an inadequate accolade.

With song after song, the tall, irrepressibly warm salsera demonstrated why she’s a musical phenomenon. Except for Ella Fitzgerald, few singers have so convincingly defied time as Cuban-born Cruz, who’s said to be in her 70s.

After 38 years of presiding as the world’s foremost salsa ambassador, Cruz’ brassy contralto voice has deepened and darkened. Which means she’s taken the best of maturity while holding on to the power to soar over the full, flashy force of Tito Puente’s 15-piece band with hardly a lapse of intonation, phrasing or emotional intensity.

If Cruz betrayed any mortal failing, it was that she repeats herself. To be fair, she did perform some new songs, like a salsa version of Ritchie Valens’ revived hit “La Bamba.” But it was with crowd-pleasers such as “Yerberito,” a son montuno of typically slow, simmering passion, that Cruz transformed herself into salsa’s entrancing priestess.