Ozomatli + Robert Cray equals 60 years of music wisdom that demands a listen.

(photo above) “For the first time in a long time we all get in a room and jam and come up with ideas,” Jiro Yamaguchi says. “It’s going back to where we began and making music organically.” c/o Sandra Dahah

Rock concerts don’t usually begin with a senator and assemblymember. But that’s exactly how Ozomatli’s show tonight at the Golden State Theatre will go.

State Assemblyman Luis A. Alejo will present the L.A. world fusion rockers with a resolution on behalf of himself and Sen. Ben Hueso, the vice chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus. In honor of Ozomatli’s 20-year anniversary, the resolution “commends them for the enjoyment they have brought to fans throughout their career and applauds them for the invaluable contributions they’ve made to the social and cultural fabric of Los Angeles and countless other cities and nations.” Drummer Jiro Yamaguchi calls the landmark “an interesting place to be.”

“When we first started out, I wasn’t thinking beyond the next week,” he says. “After 20 years, you get a sense of the pace of life and how short life is – all you have for sure is right now.”

Ozomatli moved at a quicker pace than most bands on similar paths. Yamaguchi says after the group’s first year together – and the release of their classic self-titled debut – he was able to quit his day job with confidence.

“After that, [opportunities] just kept rolling and rolling,” Yamaguchi says.

Over the past couple decades, Ozomatli’s appeared in movies (Never Been Kissed), on television (Sex and the City), won a Grammy, played just about every major music fest (Coachella, Bonnaroo, SXSW) and composed the 2010 Dodgers theme song, “Dodgertown.” The outfit’s also performed for President Obama and the First Lady at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s award gala and received KCET’s Local Heroes Award for their humanitarian contributions.

In 2010, the City of Angels officially declared April 23 “Ozomatli Day” to recognize the band’s 15th year. From the beginning Ozomatli was more than a band, they were avid humanitarians and proponents of world unity who use music to bring people together and fight against injustice.

Even with all the accolades and opportunities Ozomatli is bombarded with year after year, it’s not easy making it to 20. It takes a certain amount of dedication to the craft, a passion for being out on the road and willingness to sacrifice long chunks of time away from family.

“It’s a relationship,” Yamaguchi explains. “You deal with conflict.”

Full fledged group therapy sessions – also, daylong retreats where personal issues are hashed out – have been key to Ozomatli’s survival.

“Talking, opening up about stuff, could be one of the things that holds a [band] together,” Yamaguchi says.

Without all that suppressed aggression that ends up murdering bands, Ozomatli has had more time for boundary-pushing activities, like collaborating with world-renowned orchestras, including the Boston Pops and San Francisco Symphony (there’s talk of hooking up with the Salt Lake City Orchestra in the future).

“It’s a different headspace because you’re playing with a full orchestra and a conductor,” Yamaguchi says. “It’s crazy because people to stand up and jump around and that usually doesn’t happen during an orchestral performance.”

Place in the Sun, Ozomatli’s Vanguard Records debut and eighth studio album, is more of a mellow drive through a breezy beach town than a forceful protest against all the political injustices, prejudices and inequalities the working class faces every day. But Ozomatli doesn’t force something if it’s not there.

“Every album is a chapter of where we are in life,” Yamaguchi says. “We’re starting a new record and you can tell that we’re in a completely different place.”

After Ozomatli’s Central Coast visit, contemporary bluesman Robert Cray and his band will perform on the same stage six days later. Since gracing the cover of Rolling Stoneback in 1986, music journalists have defined Cray’s brand of the blues as a “reinvention.”

“What they mean by [reinventing the blues] is incorporating other genres, like R&B and rock, into what’s typically recognized as blues,” Cray explains.

On Cray’s most recent release, the aptly-titled In My Soul, he introduces soul into the blues mix – he throws in a side of Otis Redding’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” and an Isaac Hayes “Your Good Thing is About to End” topper.

“Everybody listened to everything in the ’60s,” he says. “We didn’t have satelite radio stations – everybody was on AM radio: John Lee Hooker played after The Beatles, then it was Dionne Warwick and Dolly Parton. It’s all just music and it’s all part of my life. That’s the reason we make the music we do, and I know the rest of the guys in the band [bassist Richard Cousins, keyboardist Dover Weinberg and drummer Les Falconer] grew up that way as well.”

After more than 40 years, five Grammy Awards and millions of record sales worldwide, Cray is mostly proud of the fact that he still doing it.

“Having the opportunity to still be on stage and to still make records and travel, meet new fans, play for old fans – I couldn’t ask for anything more, especially since this is what I love to do,” Cray says. “And people are still calling us up. We’re getting booked.”

OZOMATLI with BANG DATA and IRENE DIAZ 8pm Thursday, Feb. 19. $28; $38/door.

ROBERT CRAY BAND 8pm Wednesday, Feb. 25. $26-$52. Golden State Theatre. 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. 649-1070.