Polad Bülbüloğlu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan in Russia, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan
As for Azerbaijani pop music, it was always popular with Soviet people: for instance, Rashid Behbudov, Muslim Magomayev, the ensemble “Gaya” are worth mentioning. Certainly, mentioning them reminds me of the period when we lived in one large country. It is very pleasant to see here, in the hall, the elders who created this music and contributed a lot to its development in that period. Concerning “Gaya” which we are still fond of, only Rauf Babayev, one of the artists of this quartet, is present here now. Let’s greet him.
To be honest, I should say as the ex-minister of culture that Rauf’s great merit is also the fact that he created the successor of “Gaya”, the children’s vocal group. I did my best in order to support it. This period was difficult, it was quite challenging to support them by financial aid or in other ways, but we did our best in order to create all the conditions for their work, and the children always sang wonderfully. Rauf’s great merit is creating the group which could inherit the traditions created by “Gaya”. At first it was called “Beri Bakh”, and now it is also called “Gaya”. To my mind, it is quite fair that generational change is carried out and that we pass our experience to the young.
I think everyone would be glad to remember that the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Azerbaijan recently. Our young artists, Eldar and Nigyar, became the winners of the contest one year before and brought the Eurovision with them to Baku. I think lots of music fans in the hall now saw the broadcast of this wonderful event from Baku and the new concert hall built in 8 months in Baku in order to host the Eurovision Song Contest. They saw our city get prettier, they saw our central avenue get larger. It is clear that the Eurovision Song Contest is the main reason for it. Frankly speaking, even living abroad due to our job we were proud of our country, our city, our President, our First Lady and our artists.
Lev Shimelov, Honored Artist of Russia
I have to confess that there were few breathtaking moments in my life, though it was quite long and full of creativity. The thing I would like to tell about was very rare. Well, the Quartet “Gaya” made me (and not only me) feel something that it is difficult to imagine nowadays in pop music, - jimjams and lumpy throat. “Gaya” was like this.
Gennadi Khazanov, People’s Artist of Russia
The ensemble “Gaya”, from my point of view, represents a good example of taste, musical culture, artistry, and unique singing.
Polad Bülbüloğlu, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan
The ensemble “Gaya” is a unique page of Azerbaijani music history.
Larisa Dolina, People’s Artist of Russia
That was marvelous. I have never heard anything like that neither before nor after that.
Yuri Entin, poet
“Gaya” was the best in our country due to its musical talent and elegance, I’m sure of it. It seems to me that they are inimitable even now.
Yuli Gusman, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan
This quartet “Gaya”, which shook the country, all the former USSR, which was called “The Rock” for some reason – maybe because “Gaya” was a beautiful word, - was quite unforgettable.
Nani Bregvadze, People’s Artist of the USSR
The brilliant ensemble “Gaya” was the best ensemble of the Soviet Union.
Mark Rozovski, People’s Artist of Russia
This quartet, the Quartet “Gaya”, could reach such a powerful sound that it seemed that 100 people sang simultaneously.
Roustam Ibragimbekov, People’s Writer of Azerbaijan
On the one hand, they managed to bring the polyphony to Azerbaijani songs. On the other hand, they managed to sing jazz. This was a great achievement which no other ensemble could reach. The artists of the greatest Georgian ensemble, Orera, said jealously: they can reach a wonderful sound, their voices make a deep impression on the audience. The impression was that they played some jazz organ.
Vakhtang Kikabidze, People’s Artist of Georgia
The emergence of this ensemble was like an explosion. There were several ensembles – Georgian “Orera”, “Gaya”, “Pesnyary”, and nothing more,
Vyacheslav Zaytsev, Honored Worker in the Field of the Arts of Russia
You know, their singing itself is something kind, joyous, vivid and young for me.
Lion Izmaylov, writer
The ensemble “Gaya” was one of the best vocal groups in our country. Everybody knew what “Gaya” was.
Arkadi Arkanov, writer
It was one of the best jazz quartets in this period. Even now they are considered to be high class professionals.
Nowadays, in the century of developing technologies, when so-called pop stars emerge an disappear every day, the number of TV channels accessible for every viewer is more than 100, and there are two new generations of our compatriots who don’t know that only several representatives of Azerbaijan were shown in musical broadcasts on central channels then (such as, for instance, Muslim Magomayev, Rashid Behbudov, Polad Bülbüloğlu and not less famous vocal quartet “Gaya”), probably it is time to tell to modern viewers about this difficult and wonderful period and about our famous compatriots who contributed to the development of modern music – the legendary ensemble “Gaya”
Lev Elisavetski
Our orchestra consisted of eight musicians. We played jazz, pop, national Azerbaijani music and a lot of Dagestani songs written by Murad Kazhlayev. The ensemble we created was called “Gunib”.
Murad Kazhlayev, People’s Artist of the USSR
This big folder contains all the information about the ensemble “Gunib” which was called “Gaya” later. Maybe the viewers and other people would like to find out what is the meaning of these words. Gunid is an aul in Dagestan the homeland of wonderful highland songs.
Teimur Mirzoyev
“Gunib” was created in 1964, and it exists nowadays. As Azerbaijani people say, “we initiated this”. Generations changed, there were a lot of musicians, and now they are still changing. But “Gunib” does exist.
I would like to tell you that we needed a good poet. The poet was close to us – he was our good friend, Rasul Gamzatov, who heard us and said: “You exist so that I could write good poems for you!”
Actually, after the victory at the national contest “Gaya” gained general acceptance. The period of tours in the USSR and abroad, performances for various TV broadcasts, new impressions, new friends and new songs came for them.
Vakhtang Kikabidze, People’s Artist of Georgia
Many years ago, when I was a dark-haired skinny fellow, I was on tour in Frunze, if I am not mistaken. And there we got to know four young men of the same age from Azerbaijan. Their names were Rauf, Teimur, Arif and Lev. Within days we made so good friends with them that just after the concert we couldn’t do anything without each other. Our tours were organized all over the former Soviet Union, we met each other very often, we visited them in Baku, they visited us in Tbilisi. When I meet my friends from Orero – some of them are still alive – we remember these marvelous “jam sessions” which we organized after the concerts. Completely exhausted, we came to each other and sang together. We began to sing Azerbaijani songs, and they learned Georgian ones.
Polad Bülbüloğlu, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan
We performed very often in the same concerts, the same broadcasts. I will never forget one of our first tours in 1970, when we went to Turkey. Our concerts in Izmir, Ankara and Istanbul were very successful. Then we became good friends. It is told that if you want to get to know a man, you should travel with him. There were a lot of tours – in Ukraine, in Russia; sometimes there were two or three concerts per day. Our efforts were enormous – journeys, planes, trains, buses, cars, endless changes of cities. Our tour life was like this.
Gennadi Khazanov, People’s Artist of Russia
I made friends with them in 1970, during the concert tour which travelled over all the USSR. I remember very well that four handsome young men, Teimur Mirzoyev, Rauf Babayev, Arif Gadzhiyev and Lev Elisavetski, appeared with the audience’s applause, when the ensemble “Gaya” was invited to the stage. And after that there was something magic.
The ensemble “Gaya” became famous abroad for the first time in the same period. It became the gold medal winner of the youth and student festival in Bulgaria at the pop music contest and gained a diploma for artistry. “Gaya” also became the only ensemble who was honored with a right to represent the USSR at the international concert program “Schlager-69” in the GDR in 1969.
Polad Bülbüloğlu, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan
They sang in quite a complicated harmony with complex chords, but supposedly effortless, though every musician understood that that effortlessness was based on working hard, otherwise there wasn’t any possibility to sing like this.
Larisa Dolina, People’s Artist of Russia
They were the trendsetters, and there were people who tried to imitate them. For instance, I listened their discs excitedly (I’m a bit younger than them). They were my first jazz teachers. We got to know each other much later, when in the mid-1980s I performed in series of concerts in the Olympic village which were called “Jazz + Jazz”, and we performed in the same concert. It was unforgettable. It was something fantastic. I really enjoyed from creative work with them, from their experience and knowledge, from their educational level and, of course, from their singing. They didn’t look like someone else; probably that’s why the audience was fond of them and they were very popular in this period.
Lev Shimelov, Honored Artist of Russia
The performances of the quartet “Gaya” were great from the point of view of aesthetic. This was expressed in everything: every head rotation, every pass of these artists were aesthetic. Even without sound it would be pleasant to look at them. If the ensemble “Gaya” had performed nowadays, as it did in the 1980-s, this would look like they are a new ensemble. This is fantastic, and this is superb.
Gennadi Khazanov, People’s Artist of Russia
They are wonderful.
They performed in the central concert hall “Rossiya. This cast of “Gaya” continued performing. For instance, it gave a brilliant performance at the jazz festival in Panevėžys, in France and in th USA. The homeland of the jazz was shaken. Rauf Babayev, Arif Gadzhiyev and Teimur Mirzoyev began to prepare a new concert program.
The breakdown of the USSR and, in consequence, of the national concert system didn’t let the further plans of the group come true. The changing world needed “commercial” music; it was almost impossible to support such a big group created for national and international tours. The musicians left for their independent countries, the young singers decided to build their own career. Our heroes felt unclaimed for the first time.
In the mid-1990s Rauf Babayev creates a children’s vocal group “Beri Bakh” with the participation of the music school named after Rostropovich, in order to compensate for the vacuum which appeared in his life and in his soul. The vocal group became well-known within several years both in our country and abroad. It is enough to remember the grand prix of International Arts Festival the Slavic Bazaar in 2001. Thus “Beri Bakh” became a new page in the history of the ensemble “Gaya”, and Rauf Babayev inspired by the success of his young pupils began to prepare them to the participation of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ensemble “Gaya”.
The idea to gather and to sing together inspired everybody. Lev Elisavetski, who settled down in the USA and performed solo, Teimur and Tofiq Mirzoyev who left for Israel, and Arif Gadzhiyev who still lived in Baku and supported Rauf’s creature – the ensemble “Beri Bakh”. Everybody waited for a new meeting, chose songs for the concert and prepared for singing a swan song. Alas! – all the four friends didn’t manage to gather.
The history of this outstanding ensemble could end; there was just one shag to it.
The entertainer
The national ensemble “Gaya”!
The ensemble “Beri Bakh” under the guidance of Rauf Babayev was honored with a right to be called “Gaya” and to inherit this great music tradition. It means – to be continued…
