Pop : Musical Evening of Love, Loss and ‘Locos’

Linda Ronstadt may have referred to herself as “a girl from Tucson,” but the former rock singer, whose father is of Mexican-German heritage, turned in the most ethnically faithful performance at Friday’s sold-out benefit concert for the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund at the Wiltern Theatre.

The show, titled “An Evening of Music and Laughter,” also featured rap duo A Lighter Shade of Brown, comedian Paul Rodriguez (one of the benefit’s co-producers) and Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, the 12-piece band that backed Ronstadt. The predominantly Latino audience appeared to include representatives of three generations, one for each style of music on display.

Wearing a traditional white costume with colorful embroidery, a turquoise shawl draped over her shoulders, Ronstadt closed the show with selections from her last two albums, “Canciones de Mi Padre” (“My Father’s Songs”) and “Mas Canciones” (“My Songs”). Highlights of the set were “Ojos de Palomita” (“Little Dove’s Eyes”) and “El Crucifijo de Piedra” (“Crucifix of Stone”).

These unabashedly emotive songs of love, loss, children and God proved a perfect match to Ronstadt’s powerful, straight-from-the-heart alto, full of long, sobbing notes and delicate, hiccuped yodels. A colorfully costumed couple performing exuberant regional dances lent additional spark.

The evening began with the show’s co-producer, entertainment executive Jeff Wald, speaking mangled Espanol to an audience that included Mayor Tom Bradley, mayoral candidate Michael Woo and such celebrities as “L.A. Law’s” Jimmy Smits and former boxing champ Sugar Ray Leonard. “They warned me to pronounce becas (grants) carefully,” Wald said, “otherwise I’d be saying vacas (cows).”

Noting that the date was one year after the L.A. riots, Wald promised, “Los Angeles will unite by educating its youth,” setting off two hours of screams and yelps from the enthusiastic crowd.

A Lighter Shade of Brown’s Robert Gutierrez (rap name: ODM) and Bobby Ramirez (DTTX) milked that energy in their opening set, performing two selections from their socially conscious debut album “Hip Hop Locos” and asking for a moment of silence for the late labor activist Cesar Chavez.

Rodriguez followed with a razor-sharp set of social commentary. “Why is it every time someone claims to be Jesus, it’s always a Midwestern man?” Rodriguez asked, referring to David Koresh. “You don’t hear a Mexican claiming to be Jesus, because chances are, he is!”

At times, Rodriguez bordered on the outrageous: “You were the perfect mayor for L.A.,” he told Bradley. “A black man who eats Mexican food, speaks Caucasian and is Korean from the eyes up.” Against an abstract backdrop--an arc of lights framing a desert sunset--Los Camperos’ plaintive violins, guitars and harp set the stage for Ronstadt’s set, performing romantic Mexican standards such as “No Me Quieres Tanto” (“You Don’t Love Me That Much”).