The Winans and Whitney Houston at the Wiltern

Singing Winans actually outnumber singing Jacksons, and most of the vocally prodigious Detroit family--which has successfully brought gospel lyrics to the black pop mainstream--made it to the stage in a sometimes indulgent but always passionate performance Friday night at the sold-out Wiltern Theatre. Brother and sister BeBe & CeCe Winans were joined by several more sibling Winans, Mom and Dad Winans, and even prominently featured Whitney Winans.

Actually, Houston was introduced by her real name but might as well have been family, sharing as she does their way of swooping and dipping all over a poor, defenseless syllable. Call it the Megalo-Melismatic school. The show’s second half was filled with what the New Testament writers might call “vain repetition”: ballads stretched out so the singers could challenge each other with repeated renderings of the same word or phrase. Showing off for the Lord? Maybe. But the more compact, upbeat numbers offered a joyously noisy brand of bouncy black pop all too rarely heard with any kind of lyric these days.