The Healing Power Of Music: Federico Azuz's Journey from Heavy Metal to Fusion

By Carolyn Studer

In a large, brightly lit room in a London hospital, a jazz ensemble—a drummer, bassist, keyboard player, and several singers, including a young vocalist from México named Federico Azuz—performed for patients undergoing treatment for various degrees of paralysis.

As the band launched into the upbeat swing tune Sweet Lorraine, Federico noticed one patient who was so severely paralyzed he could not even move his eyes. Almost immediately, the musicians began to see changes. Patients started moving to the music—even the man who had seemed completely immobile. By the third song, the members of the band were wiping tears from their eyes. Federico found it difficult to sing.

All of the musicians were trained music therapists, but witnessing the power of music firsthand was still extraordinary.

Raised between México City and Veracruz, Azuz began his musical journey at age 16, singing and writing what he describes as "super dark lyrics" for a successful teenage heavy metal band. He first studied classical guitar, then fell in love with punk music.

After changing his university major from economics to music, he studied at the National University in México City before moving to the United States, where he played in blues and rock bands. Influenced in part by his grandfather, a jazz musician in Veracruz, Azuz eventually traveled to London to study jazz. There, his teacher, Conal Folukes, encouraged him to participate in music therapy sessions at a London hospital.

The experience led Azuz to become a trained music therapist.

In a recent interview, Azuz spoke passionately about that period of his life. "It was the most fascinating thing I have ever done in music. Ever. Every week something magnificent happened. All of the musicians saw huge changes in the patients. One day one of the patients stood up from his wheelchair." The patients were not the only ones transformed by the experience. "At the same time that you are healing people, you are healing something in yourself. You don't look like a patient in a wheelchair, but something within you is also healing. The whole band felt it. It completely changed my perspective on music."

Scientific studies have documented music's positive effects on the brain and body, but what convinced Azuz was his direct experience.

"If you are asking me if music has the power to heal, I am quite sure that it does."

Thirteen years ago, after years in London and extensive travel with musicians from around the world, Azuz returned to San Miguel de Allende and became part of the city's music community. Although he no longer works as a music therapist, he continues to bring that understanding of music's healing potential to every performance. "That vibe, that energy, is the strongest thing in my life. With it I create my own reality, and I can share it with someone who might need it. Maybe somebody does need something loving—that loving energy—and if they can receive it through the music, that's ideal."

That philosophy shapes Azuz's commitment to fusion music. "It's always been my purpose to consider music as a whole. But if you want to know my favorite, it's fusion—the music that brings together traditions from different cultures and different parts of the world."

Although he has studied jazz extensively, Azuz is not interested in simply reproducing established formulas. "When I play jazz, I usually go into the traditional way of playing it. But I don't play licks—the standard phrases of jazz. I've studied the rhythms, grooves, and harmonies of Latin American music, and I bring those influences into the jazz."

Elisea Valdéz, an Argentine singer who performs with Federico in Voz de Cajón, says they are constantly exchanging ideas about Latin American music. "We feed each other. We are always sharing what we know about the different styles of Latin American music. But what I appreciate most, besides his positive energy, is that Federico plays beyond the styles."

Federico Azuz has spent decades absorbing music from many cultures, but the lesson that remains most important to him is the one he learned in that London hospital: music can heal.

For Azuz, fusion is more than a genre. It is a way of bringing together everything he has learned and experienced into a single artistic voice.

"If not, then what do I do with all of these experiences? What have I learned, and what do I say about life?"