Turning On the Power

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is a multifaceted entity, what with handling water, electricity and waste disposal. So it was fitting that it celebrated its 100th anniversary Sunday with a show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion honoring the cultural diversity of the city.

Of course, even the DWP can’t cover the whole range of L.A. in a three-hour show. But Voices for a Green L.A., as the event was dubbed, gave it a good try, running from the Japanese taiko drummers performing on the plaza outside the theater beforehand through several shades of gospel, a pairing of Armenian and Sephardic Jewish traditions and a rousing closing set by always-eclectic Los Lobos.

With KCAL news anchor Pat Harvey emceeing, the evening featured brief segments recounting DWP history, boosting its environmental programs and boasting a little about not being caught off guard by last summer’s energy crisis.

Overall, though, there was as much God and country as water and power touted Sunday, starting with the patriotic and Christian inspirational favorites performed by the LADWP Choristers--a high-quality choir of department employees--in the mezzanine lobby before the official show began.

That focus reemerged in the main show’s commanding performances by the First African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Brookinares Gospel Choir and contemporary gospel-R&B; star Yolanda Adams.

It was left for Los Lobos to tie all the evening’s elements together with a frisky encore of Woody Guthrie’s inclusive anthem “This Land Is Your Land,” joined by both Adams and the First AME chorus. Marking its own 25th year, Los Lobos, even in a scaled-down set, had already covered a lot of cultural ground, starting with the acoustic Mexican folk music of its roots and moving through its vibrant array of rock, R&B; and pan-American influences, filtered through but not limited by the band’s distinctively East L.A. sensibilities.

Adams’ set was powered by her stellar voice--naturally pure, full and agile--and a dynamic personality to match.

Being sandwiched between Adams and Los Lobos would be tough for anyone, let alone something as unfamiliar to most in the half-filled house as the pairing of John Bilezikjian, an Armenian American player of the stringed instrument the oud, with Turkish-born Cantor Haim Mizrahi, who sings in both Hebrew and the Judeo-Spanish language Ladino. But the game audience got swept up in the music’s exotic, mournful strains.

The crowd also was delighted by the opening sets, by the invigorating, seven-woman percussion group ADAAWE and the remarkably poised and accomplished Los Angeles Children’s Choir. Fortunately, the nominal theme of energy conservation didn’t apply to the high-wattage performers or the enthusiastic audience.