Gaya Quartet
| Gaya Quartet | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Baku, Azerbaijani SSR |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Years active | 1972–88 |
| Past members | Arif Hajiev, Teymur Mirzoyev, Rauf Babayev, Lev Yelisavetskiy |
“Gaya“ (Azerbaijani: Qaya) well-known Azerbaijani vocal quartet consisting of Arif Hajiyev, Teymur Mirzoyev, Lev Yelisovetski and Rauf Babayev performed in 1960s-1980s. There were song in Azerbaijani, Spanish, Polish, Russian and English languages in their repertoire. Gaya came to the big stage in 1961, when Rauf Hajiyev invited musicians to work in Azerbaijan State Estrada Orchestra. Such composers as Tofig Guliyev, Fikret Amirov, Rauf Hajiyev, Vasif Adigozalov, Faraj Garayev and Tofig Babayev worked with “Gaya”.
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 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 repeated and private offer of Rauf Hajiyev, who became the manager of the orchestra till hat 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 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” on Azerbaijani and “Anxious youth” song in Russian. “Gaya” had tours in many cities of the USSR with the orchestra and had its first tour in overseas-in Algeria.
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