The wide-ranging SFJAZZ Festival takes full flight this weekend as its very own SFJAZZ Collective hits town.

The seven-piece, all-star lineup plays Saturday and Sunday night at San Francisco's Palace of the Fine Arts Theatre, headlining the spring season series, which continues into the start of summer.

By the time Goran Bregovic and the Wedding & Funeral Orchestra close the spring season with their Serbian gypsy spectacle at the Herbst Theatre on June 21, three dozen concerts will have been presented. You might be thinking that Serbian gypsy music doesn't sound much like jazz – and you'd be right.

SFJAZZ executive director Randall Kline uses the American-born improvisational music called jazz as the topical starting point for the festival he founded in 1983.

"I like to say 'jazz, music that's been influenced by jazz, and music that has influenced jazz,' which means we can do anything to certain degree," Kline says, laughing.

But he adds, seriously: "There has to be some kind of feeling to it."

The artists Kline has booked for the coming weeks range from cabaret singer extraordinaire Michael Feinstein's Frank Sinatra tribute to the Roots, often considered the world's greatest live hip-hop band. Both will play in Davies Symphony Hall, demonstrating another SFJAZZ feature: placing its shows at distinctive San Francisco venues.

The festival will also showcase jazz legend Ahmad Jamal at the Herbst Theatre, Portuguese superstar fado vocalist Mariza at Oakland's Paramount Theatre and the Maria Volonté Tango Jazz Ensemble at Florence Gould Theatre at the Legion of Honor.

There will still be plenty of jazz with performances by John Scofield, Branford Marsalis and Brad Mehldau. But the international musical flavor reflects how the world works.

"Because of the sheer volume of what we do now, the world music element is more pronounced," Kline says.

"It has evolved, but the other thing that's evolved is there are just more people coming from a lot more countries now."

Kline programs the festival and, of course, recommends all the acts, but there are some standouts in this year's lineup.

"Mariza is absolutely at the top of my recommended list. It's one of those non-jazz shows, but with the feeling of jazz. It's soulful music that's a show in a really poignant way."

Kline also looks forward to the Sacred Space Concert at Grace Cathedral with trumpeter Roy Hargrove and saxophonist James Carter. These solo and duo shows in the nave of the cathedral have become a festival speciality.

"This is one of those home run concerts for us because we have this tradition built of doing these Scared Space shows and there have been so many spectacular performances there," Kline says.

However, the festival's true jewel is the SFJAZZ Collective, now in its sixth season. Kline created the ensemble as a working band that creates new music and celebrates a deserving jazz composer. This year's seven-piece band arranges and performs the music of McCoy Tyner as well as its own commissioned works. The band has become an international ambassador of the festival as well, touring the world each spring.

This year, the tour ends in Northern California with a performance in Chico on Friday and performances in San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday.

"We'll be hearing them at their absolute best," Kline says.

"They're developing a completely new repertoire in two weeks, then they're on the road and it develops further. Then it gets polished and they're done."

The band has maintained a central core of players with saxophonist Miguel Zenón and pianist Renee Rosnes, the only original members. Bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland have been in place since the second season. Horn players Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano and Robin Eubanks are all in their second year. Douglas and Lovano will leave after this season. The fact that different players have been in the group has added to its continued energy.

"The idea was we wanted to create something fresh that had a collective spirit," Kline says.

"It isn't one musician's point of view. It's the idea of trying to bring in all these different points of view and see what comes from that."

Trombonist, composer and arranger Eubanks, well-known for his work in Dave Holland's various groups, has relished his Collective experience.

"You're commissioned, so you get paid to compose and arrange," Eubanks says.

"We rehearse abundantly, so you're able to make sure your music gets played the way you want it to, no matter what you've written, and you've got great musicians to pull it off at a high level. What's not to like?"

Eubanks nominated Tyner to be this year's featured artist, and he's been impressed with his colleagues' interpretations of the great pianist's work.

"The way I hear it, there's a strong African undercurrent in McCoy's music. The sound he gets on the piano, the power of it, reminds me of the ocean. He has a style that's very distinctive. I like it when a musician imposes his personality on the instrument."

Eubanks embraces the festival's eclecticism as opening up jazz to the broader public's ears.

"I felt the neoconservative movement that was going on in the '80s was really holding the music back," Eubanks says. "I think it helped undercut the audience for jazz and did a lot of damage to the overall perspective of the music from the standpoint of the general public."

Eubanks thinks jazz and related music can only benefit from broader festival programming.

"I hate to see any kind of limits on creative expression. I'm all for opening it up," he says.