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When a group of jazz musicians has been together as long as Trio da Paz has, the notes just flow.

Drummer Duduka da Fonseca offers the best — fittingly Brazilian — analogy he can to explain:

"It's like a well-rehearsed soccer team," he says.

Da Fonseca, guitarist Romero Lubambo and bassist Nilson Matta have been playing their unique hybrid of "samba jazz" for more than 25 years. On Monday night, they'll play Capitol Theatre as part of the GAM Foundation's JazzSLC series. Singer Maucha Adnet, da Fonseca's wife of 27 years, and saxophonist Harry Allen will join them in a show that blends original Brazilian jazz compositions with bossa nova standards, da Fonseca says.

After nearly three decades and multiple albums, including the aptly named "30" released this month, the group's members can anticipate and respond to each other in a way that defines the best jazz ensembles. Monday's show, da Fonseca says, will incorporate that history.

All three of the group's principals were born in Brazil. Da Fonseca and Matta played soccer together every Wednesday on a team of musicians before both emigrated to the United States, settling in New York City. In 1981, da Fonseca returned to Brazil and heard Lubambo "playing his butt off." Four years later, he too settled in New York. In 1990, they banded together in the trio.

Their first album, "Brazil from the Inside," received the Independent Music Award for best album of the year in 1992. Several more compilations followed, including "Partido Out," named the Jazz Journalists Association's best Brazilian jazz album in 2002. Their latest, "Somewhere," blends American and Brazilian standards, including familiar Stan Getz-Astrud Gilberto songs.

Over the years, the trio's members have performed and recorded with a host of American and Brazilian musical greats: Dianne Reeves, Grover Washington Jr., Kathleen Battle and Antonio Carlos Jobim, credited with creating the bossa nova style and composer of "The Girl from Ipanema."

In Salt Lake City, da Fonseca says, the performance will feature longtime collaborators Allen and Adnet, who are almost honorary members of the trio.

"It's like when you have a conversation with some old friends that you really like," he adds. "The ideas just flow. Sometimes we plan. Sometimes we don't. Things come easy. It's very comfortable. We're looking forward to it." —

Trio da Paz & Friends

When • Monday, 7:30 p.m.

Where • Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $29.50, $10 for students with ID (8 and up); artsaltlake.org