Gaya Quartet

The quartet changed its membership several times during its existence period. The great successes of “Gaya” are related with the names of Teymur Mirzoyev, Arif Hajiyev, Rauf Babayev and Lev Yelisovetski. Teymur Mirzoyev, artistic manager of the quartet wished to create his own jazz group from his childhood. He studied with Arif Hajiyev at chorus-conductor faculty of Musical School named after Asaf Zeynally under the Conservatoire. Besides them, Adil Nazarov and Rauf Babayev were also members of the quartet. Nazarov studied at string branch of double bass class, and Rauf Babayev studied at the faculty of percussion instruments. The group hadn't got a place for rehearsal. They got together in the yards with good acoustics, where they learnt new jazz compositions heard on the radio or recording discs. Sometimes the group performed in birthdays and parties of friends. Soon, they were spoken of by the citizens of Baku. They were offered to be a member of the symphonic orchestra of State Broadcasting Company of the Azerbaijan SSR. Refusing the first time, they accepted a private offer of Rauf Hajiyev, who became the manager of the orchestra till that time. The well-known jazz pianist and arranger Anatoliy Kalvarskiy was invited as musical manager. Such great authors as Boris Sichkin and Arkadiy Arkanov worked on performance program of the orchestra. Later, Adil Nazarov married and moved to live in Moscow. Lev Yelisovetski became a new member of the group, who often participated in the rehearsals of the group. The members of the group decided to offer him the chance to sing with them. So the quartet was created with its most popular membership. The first songs, which were sung by singers in the orchestra were Rauf Hajiyev's “Baku”, Aziz Azizov's “Tez gel yar” in Azerbaijani and “Anxious youth” song in Russian. “Gaya” had tours in many cities of the USSR with the orchestra and had its first tour overseas-in Algeria.[2]

Soon, the quartet parted with the estrada orchestra. After that, Murad Kajlayev-artistic director of Makhachkala Philarmony, who had a great role on Dagestan composer-school and was born and grew up in Baku, became interested in them. Murad Kajlayev studied at Azerbaijan State Conservatoire with many members of the quartet, where Boris Zeydman and Gara Garayev taught him. The quartet accepted the offer to work with them enthusiastically. They moved to Makhachkala and created the first estrade group of Dagestan -“Gunib”, which was named after a place in the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, with jazz-trio of Rafig Babayev. The main part of the repertoire consisted of the ensemble's artistic director Murad Kajlayev's compositions, and also popular folk melodies and modern hit songs. The music was orchestrated by Teymur Mirzoyev and Rafig Babayev, who was the musical manager. “Gunib” had a great success and performed in tours throughout the country. The All-Union firm “Melodiya” released recording discs of the ensemble with general circulation, articles about “Gunib” were published in newspapers and journals. In autumn of 1965, the ensemble was recalled to Baku.[3]

They were out of work for a while. At the end of 1965, they were offered to perform in tours in the Far East with Muslim Magomayev and pianist Chingiz Sadykhov. The quartet went to the four-month tour under the name “Gaya”, which means “rock” in Azerbaijani. During the tours “Gaya” performed in 120 concerts in the Far East cities.