It’s ‘quite the musical ride’

“Start the car; I know a whoopee spot where the gin is cold but the piano’s hot. It’s just a noisy hall where there’s a nightly brawl — and all … that … jazz!”

— “Chicago”

A night of free-form syncopated notes, concerto greats and scintillating saxophone awaits those who buy tickets to next weekend’s “Gershwin and All That Jazz” performances by the Pacific Symphony and friends at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

Each piece at “Gershwin and All That Jazz” will blend into the next, in a “collage” format led by symphony Music Director Carl St. Clair.

“This concert has been put together with two ideas in mind,” St. Clair said. “The first is that it is a collage of music with jazz as its theme. Collage, in my mind, means continually flowing music, practically nonstop, for about 22 to 25 minutes. Unlike the other two ‘Music Unwound’ programs, there will be almost no talking — just a stream of music juxtaposed in extreme contrast.”

The jazz shows will feature French Canadian pianist extraordinaire Alain Lefèvre and top bassist Kevin Deas, joining the symphony in portions of pieces like Leonard Bernstein’s “Preludes, Fugues and Riffs”; George Gershwin’s own “Concerto in F”; Dmitri Shostakovitch’s “Dance 1” from his Jazz Suite No. 2; and Frank Ticheli’s “Blue Shades.”

On the cooler side, Los Angeles saxophonist Charles Owens will solo in “King Solomon” from Duke Ellington’s little-known concert work, “Three Black Kings”; Deas will perform traditional spirituals; and Lefèvre will perform two of his own compositions: “Philip Black Blue” and “Cool Cole.”

For those seeking more Gershwin, an additional concert at 3 p.m. March 21 will feature Lefèvre exploring Gershwin’s full concerto, which has been equally panned and admired.

The “Gershwin and All That Jazz” production is the third in the symphony’s popular “Music Unwound” series that debuted at the start of the season, in which the traditional concert hall experience is unraveled and all bets are off.

Prior “Music Unwound” shows included October’s “Alpine” symphony by Richard Strauss, complete with Alpine film footage, and “A Tchaikovsky Portrait: Child of Glass,” which used an extensive multimedia presentation.

In another break from Pacific Symphony tradition — and as a nod to St. Clair’s own past — the Gershwin evening will break for two intermissions, in a pops-style format.

“During my tenure as assistant conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, I conducted many pops concerts — and I found the format of having two intermissions with power-packed music for brief periods of time was very intense and created an atmosphere of excitement, without letdown,” St. Clair said.

“So, we have the collage idea wrapped in the format of a BSO Pops concert. It should be quite the musical ride.”

If You Go

What: “Gershwin and All That Jazz”

When: 8 p.m. March 18 to 20

Where: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center

Cost: $25 to $105

Information: (714) 755-5799 or www.pacificsymphony.org