In tune regardless of season

Halfway through their Christmas concert Friday night at the Universal Amphitheatre, singers Jaci Velasquez and Jon Secada did a bilingual duet that started with a wisecrack.

“I’m dreaming of a White Christmas,” sang Secada, the Miami-based Cuban American crooner.

“You live in Miami, Florida,” came the sarcastic retort from Velasquez, the talented Mexican American from Texas.

The passing joke actually highlighted the major problem with the show, Estrellas de Navidad (Stars of Christmas), which also featured Cuban-born jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval. These Latin stars lacked a certain yuletide credibility when rendering several seasonal classics. Sandoval’s jazzy piano interlude killed the hymnal mood of “Silent Night” and Secada’s lame and lounge-y approach to “The Christmas Song” conjured up images of roasting marshmallows instead of chestnuts on an open fire.

The saving grace was that the carols accounted for less than half the show. Not to be a grinch, but this unusual, ad hoc trio was at its best on numbers culled from their individual repertoires.

This was an unexpected billing, joining three artists of different generations from diverse fields with very distinct followings -- the senior Sandoval from jazz, Secada from pop and Velasquez from Christian music. But it worked, partly because Secada, as de facto emcee, became the pivot man, who seemed to genuinely admire his Cuban colleague and his co-vocalist.

Their show was smartly staged, with the three rotating mini-sets in a naturally flowing sequence, working solo, in pairs and as a group. Sandoval, a seminal figure in Cuban jazz and progressive salsa, always amazes with his virtuosity.

Friday, the portly but nimble musician worked like a one-man band at times, singing and dancing and mastering multiple instruments -- trumpet, timbales, piano. On the blistering “Sandunga,” Sandoval and the seven-member band turned a genteel Christmas concert into a grooving New Year’s bash.

But the real star of the evening was Velasquez, who mixed her pop and Christian material. She has a beautiful but underappreciated voice, plus a graceful, glowing presence on stage, spiced with a subtle, girl-next-door sexiness. It’s a shame she hasn’t been able to attract a wider audience.

Compared to Secada, with his overwrought delivery a la Barry Manilow, Velasquez appears to draw from a peaceful, inner inspiration. Her artistic conviction elevated the show from merely enjoyable to memorable.