For children of all ages, a rhapsody of sounds

The Symphonic Jazz Orchestra launches the “Big! World!Fun!” family matinee series at the outdoor Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday with its kid-friendly “Great Gershwin Concert,” featuring George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

“It’s a ‘Rhapsody’ unlike any you’ve ever heard,” says conductor Mitch Glickman.

Aimed at ages 4 to 14, “and parents and grandparents,” the concert also includes the world premiere of “Sentimento Azul” by noted jazz violinist Lesa Terry, while the concert opener is a “Symphonic Jazz Recipe” -- a medley of Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” Joe Garland’s “In the Mood,” Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “The Girl From Ipanema” and Henry Mancini’s theme from the TV series “Peter Gunn.”

The medley is the ice breaker, introducing the audience to the orchestra’s instruments and asking young volunteers to come onstage and help conduct.

“A lot of these young people will hear an orchestra live for the first time,” Glickman says. “We don’t want it to be stuffy and formal.”

The Gershwin finale, featuring pianist Bill Cunliffe, bassist Edwin Livingston and drummer Peter Erskine, re-creates the composer’s 1924 historic first “Rhapsody” performance.

“Sadly, what most people know is the full orchestra version that came years and years after the piece became popular,” Glickman says. “But in that debut concert, 80% of what Gershwin played was improvised, and that was part of the magic. So we put the improvisation back in.”

A family matinee is no departure for the 5-year-old Los Angeles-based Symphonic Jazz Orchestra. It does regular outreach programming for children from elementary through high school age and for local community youth groups World Stage and Harmony Project.

Commissioning compositions is another important educational facet of the orchestra’s work, represented in Saturday’s concert by Terry’s Latin percussion-driven piece.

Young people tend to think of composers as “a bunch of busts of dead guys on pianos,” Glickman says. “Sure, they wrote a lot of great music, but there are wonderful, living, breathing people writing terrific music too.”

The “Big!World!Fun!” family series runs Saturdays through Sept. 30; other offerings include taiko drumming, Irish fiddle and dance, string music, African music and dance, theater, storytelling and flamenco. Program details at www.FordAmphitheatre.org.

-- Lynne Heffley