From Natalie Cole, an unforgettable evening

There are divas, and there are divas. Then there’s Natalie Cole.

Does she dominate a stage with the feral intensity that is the stuff of ultimate diva-dom? You bet. And is there any doubt she looks, moves and dresses better than anyone in the room? None.

But Cole has another quality, one not always present in the divas and would-be divas who struggle to achieve all the characteristics that she manifests with consummate ease: sheer, drop-dead musicality, the unerring ability to masterfully command any musical genre that comes her way.

All that was more than evident Friday at the Hollywood Bowl, when “An Evening With Natalie Cole” delivered one of the highlights of the summer pop, jazz and world music season.

Accompanied by members of the L.A. Philharmonic, led by Gail Deadrick, Cole emphasized two distinct aspects of her music.

The opening half focused on the Great American Songbook stylings that have endeared her to those who discovered her through her 1991 posthumous duet with her father, Nat “King” Cole, on “Unforgettable.”

She sang that chestnut, of course, and made it convincing even when the accompanying video of her father failed near the song’s end. But she was also stunning with a beautifully articulated “Midnight Sun,” an innuendo-filled “Fever” and an emotionally layered “Smile.”

In the second half, Cole looked back to the R&B; that preceded her “Unforgettable” breakthrough and inward to the musical spirituality that has accompanied her recovery from drug abuse.

Testifying in song, underscoring shouts of devotion with surging rhythms, she worked her way through gospel tunes, climaxing the set by bringing out a stage full of singers to accompany her in a soul-stirring demonstration of joyous musical spirituality.