Contemporary acoustic fingerstyle guitar.

Currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area, guitarist Az Samad has performed in festivals and venues in San Francisco, Boston, New York, West Virginia, Austria, United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia. Besides performing solo acoustic guitar, he also plays gypsy jazz with Jazz Mine (SF), world music with BogoFusion (SF) and is the guitarist for The Shelley Leong Band (SF/Malaysia).

Az has studied guitar with Eric Roche (UK), Thomas Leeb (Austria/LA), Don Ross (Canada), Mick Goodrick (Gary Burton Group), David Tronzo, John Stowell, Ben Monder (Maria Schneider Orchestra) and Bryan Baker (Steps Ahead). He has also participated in classical guitar master classes with Mark Teicholz and Muriel Anderson as well as taken private lessons with Steven Lin, Patrick Francis, Grisha Groyachev, Scott Tennant, Willliam Kanengiser, Gyan Riley and Ron Burczon.

As an educator, Az has been a faculty member for the Berklee College Of Music Summer Guitar Sessions since 2007. He is currently writing material for his second solo album.