Az Samad Jazz

About this page
This is where I post up some of my jazz compositions and arrangements. These particular recordings form part of the work I did while studying at Berklee College Of Music in my Jazz Composition/Performance Bachelor's Degree from Jan 2005 till August 2007. I graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors in 2007. I am currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I also write and perform solo acoustic fingerstyle guitar music. You can check out my guitar music here!
I recently received a scholarship to attend San Jose State University. In Fall 2008, I will be starting my graduate studies there for the Masters in Music (MA) in Jazz Performance.
About Az
One of 17 Malaysia's most outstanding individuals (Faces Magazine) - Az Samad is a full-time composer-performer who focuses on writing original acoustic guitar music. Coming from a classical guitar background laid the foundation for his unique sound that is a blend of jazz, latin, pop and new age. After completing his first degree in music, he studied with Eric Roche, an influential acoustic fingerstyle guitarist from the UK. Attending two of Eric's Residential Guitar Workshops in 2003 and 2004 proved valuable as it led Az into new directions in his music. Being nominated for the first Cameronian Arts Award for best solo performance encouraged him to further explore his solo guitar excursions.
The culmination of this is "Acoustic Gestures", an independently produced CD featuring 12 of his original compositions for solo acoustic guitar. He graduated Summa Cum Laude while studying under scholarship at the world famous Berklee College Of Music, Boston, USA in a dual-major degree program, majoring in Jazz Composition and Performance (Guitar). While at Berklee, he has studied guitar with Mick Goodrick, Bret Willmott, Jon Damian, Rick Peckham, David Tronzo, Tim Miller, Ben Sher, Garrison Fewell and composition with Greg Hopkins, Steve Rochinski, Ken Pullig, Scott Free and Dick Lowell. He has also studied jazz improvisation with Ed Tomassi and Hal Crook.