June 13 • 2019 39
jn

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Drawn to Music

Wilderness experience sparks Azzam’
s career.
A 

solo teen wilderness experience 
motivated Nadim Azzam’
s musi-
cal career. While outdoors, he 
found himself humming before grad-
ually singing, and that became the first 
phase of an interest in contemporary 
composing. 
Now, at 23, he has a 
repertoire that can place 
him on stages as a soloist or 
with a live band and elec-
tronic instruments.
During the Ann Arbor 
Summer Festival, June 
14-July 7, Azzam will per-
form his own songs — hip-
hop, alt rock, jazz fusion 
— with vocals and acoustic 
guitar as joined by Jacob 
LaChance on saxophone, David Ward 
on drums and Alex Fuchs on bass.
Azzam will be part of the Top of the 
Park lineup, which spotlights local enter-
tainers in free programming. This year’
s 
mainstage ticketed acts include Melissa 
Etheridge, The Capitol Steps and Dawes. 

“Most of my songs are written to 
myself,
” says Azzam, who describes his 
teen years as rebellious. “
A lot of them 
are about expressing struggle and pain 
while still trying to be hopeful. They can 
be about feeling lost while trying to find 
a way, wanting to become a 
better person and living up 
to potential.
”
Apparently, his online 
songs resonated with 
Matisyahu because, with 
a little prompting from a 
mutual friend, the famed 
Jewish singer invited 
Azzam on a college tour in 
2016.
“I opened for Matisyahu 
with an acoustic solo set,
” 
Azzam recalls. “I also performed with 
him in freestyle accompanied by the 
band. It was invigorating because he 
writes music that is so spiritual, honest 
and real on a mainstream platform.
“Matisyahu was on a unity tour, and I 
felt I could be in the middle of that. My 

mom’
s background is Jewish 
with Ukrainian roots, and 
my dad has Egyptian and 
Palestinian roots.
” 
Azzam started playing 
guitar before imagining it as a career. A 
neighbor got him started. He later took 
lessons at the Ann Arbor Music Center.
“When I was out in the wilderness for 
three days, I stared at a blade of grass for 
a couple hours, started singing to myself 
and came up with a melody,
” he explains. 
“Something just clicked, and I knew I 
wanted to be a vocalist.
” 
Azzam’
s early writing concentrated on 
raps, and he used them as the basis for 
songs, some worked into EPs “Here’
s to 
Changes” in 2015 and “Sunny Flats” in 

2019. 
He attributes part of 
his musical progress to 
an internship at X.O 
Productions, a Detroit hip-
hop studio. 
“When I got back from the Matisyahu 
tour, I had a little money and spent it 
on production equipment,
” says Azzam, 
who teaches songwriting at Ann Arbor’
s 
Neutral Zone Youth Center and works as 
a marketing specialist for The Blind Pig 
in Ann Arbor.
“I experiment with ideas I have no 
other way to express, and I’
m moving 
toward a more modern, soulful, R&B 
sound. I’
ll be producing more electronic 
stuff on the computer.
” ■

music

details 
Nadim Azzam will 
perform free at 7 p.m. 
Tuesday, June 18, on 
the Rackham Stage 
during the Ann Arbor 
Summer Festival, 
June 14-July 7. For 
festival details, go to 
a2sf.org.

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Above: Nadim Azzam, left, will 

perform with his group, including 

Jacob LaChance on sax. 

NATALIE ROBBINS

