LOVELL — Formed as the inaugural act for the Bradley Backstage series at Fryeburg Academy’s Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center, the Bradley Jazz Collective is now celebrating five years of creative collaboration. For this year’s concert at the Lovell Brick Church for Performing Arts on September 5, some repertoire will be new to their local audience, and in honor of their anniversary, they’ll share some favorite arrangements from their time together.

Along with tunes by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker, the group will present a tribute to the recently departed Joao Gilberto. This Brazilian guitarist, composer, and vocalist is credited helping to shape and bring the bossa nova sound to the United States, along with pianist and composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, vocalist Astrud Gilberto, and saxophonist Stan Getz. Recorded in 1964, their album Getz/Gilberto presented familiar songs like “Desafinado,” “Corcovado,” and “Garota de Ipanema,” or “Girl from Ipanema,” and in 1965, became the first non-American album and one of the few jazz albums to receive the Grammy for Record of the Year. Guests will be treated to creative interpretations of bossa nova classics, including a rapid-fire medley sung in Portuguese.

The September gathering of the Bradley Jazz Collective features musicians well-known to the Mt. Washington Valley. Craig Bryan is the drummer for Bruce Marshall and the Nor’Easters, Jonathan Sarty, Sounds Clever and the Valley Horns, and the Smoke House Boys,and can be heard on singer-songwriter Heather Pierson’s album, Motherless Child.

Al Hospers, a professional bass player for over 50 years, toured with the Buddy Rich Band and Blood Sweat & Tears in the 1980s. Hospers now performs with a wide variety of bands in the Mt. Washington Valley, including his Sounds Clever and the Valley Horns.

Mike Sakash is a saxophone player, writer, and arranger for the Portland Jazz Orchestra and Cold River Radio Show, and chair of the Arts Department Fryeburg Academy. Vocalist Mimi Rohlfing is the Director of Music at Fryeburg Academy, and has sung jazz, classical, and pop music from Capetown to Toronto, and many European cities along the way.

Pianist Jed Wilson has played professionally since the age of 14, studied jazz at the New England Conservatory, and has performed across North America with artists including Heather Masse, Dominique Eade, and Dave Kobrenski.

On Thursday, September 5, at 7 p.m., the Bradley Jazz Collective will play at the Brick Church for the Performing Arts on Christian Hill Road in Lovell. Tickets (at the door) will be $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under. For more information, please call 925-1500 or go to www.lovellbrickchurch.org.

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