"QAYA": HALF A CENTURY UNDER THE SAME SAILS

The Qaya ensemble was the most popular group in the 1960-70s. Not only did this cult vocal quartet sing Western songs, it also actively promoted Azerbaijani music. In a short time, the quartet travelled the length and breadth of the USSR. And wherever they went, they were successful and sold out because it was the only Soviet quartet that performed jazz. Recently, the famous ensemble celebrated its 50th birthday. One of the members of the famous quartet, People's Artist of Azerbaijan Rauf Babayev, told our magazine about the past, present and future of Qaya.

- Rauf muallim, how come that you decided to dedicate your life to music?

- (Smiles) Sometimes I think that it all happened by chance, and sometimes I think that everything was prescribed from above. For family reasons, I was forced to drop out of school after the 7th grade, and I entered the faculty of percussion instruments at the Asaf Zeynalli music school. In my view, the school was a special elite institution, where the most stylish young people of the capital studied. They seemed so adult and serious - although they were only two years older than me - that I was taken aback at first. But, after I got to know them better, I realized that the future musicians are, as they say, nice guys. By the way, I must say that before that, I finished music school ¹ 8, which was located next to the Opera and Ballet Theatre. Our class was very friendly and lively.

(Smiles) We often behaved like hooligans. We organized real fisticuffs with kids from other schools who dared to pass through the courtyard of our school. We hid our briefcases in the front door and ran away from classes to the movies. Incidentally, at that time, all leading music schools were concentrated in one building - the first floor housed a music college, the second floor - a ten-year school, which was later named after Bulbul, and the third floor - a conservatory. We, freshmen, frequented our elder friends' state exams because we liked to listen to good music. Of course, at these examination concerts, there were no vacant seats for the spectators. We grew up in a musical environment. At the college, I made friends with Teymur Mirzayev, Arif Haciyev and Adil Nazarov. It was with this complement that we first started to sing. Teymur and Arif studied at the department of choirs and conductors at the time, while Adil was at the bass department. After 40 years, it is difficult to remember which one of us was the first to come up with the idea to organize a quartet. It was probably Teymur... It was he who told us about a music broadcast he had heard on Voice of America. The programme was devoted to the quartets The Hi-Lo's and The Four Freshmen. In the years of our youth, jazz was in disgrace and we had to get information about our favourite musicians, listening to radio programmes that were in disgrace too. Music novelties were purchased near Kubinka then. The discs were "home-made" copies recorded on ordinary X-ray images. Those who could get hold of an artist's original discs were the happiest people, in our view.

Not really knowing what the songs were about and not knowing the English language, we copied the text by ear. Of course, we got some sort of "abracadabra". But we were so in love with jazz polyphony that nothing could stop us. In the evenings, we got together near the Bahar cinema on the boulevard, where a restaurant stands now, and exchanged impressions. The discussions were devoted exclusively to music. Actually, Baku was a musical city at that time. Every self-respecting university had its own orchestra and arranged music parties. Every cinema had its own orchestra. Life was so interesting! And we all did not live a lavish life. We wore the clothes of our older brothers and fathers (smiles). We altered clothes and turned ties inside out, thus giving old things a new style. But we still did not care about anything. Music was the priority for us. Over time, we decided to rehearse on the street. We gathered in acoustically good courtyards and sang.

- But how did you manage to grow out of a "neighbourhood" quartet into a cult band?

- Sometimes we played at birthday parties and at friends'. Very soon, thanks to the so-called "people's telegraph", the Bakuvians learned that in the city of Baku, there was a group that sang jazz. We were immediately invited to join the variety orchestra of Azerbaijan, but we refused (smiles). Why? We sang jazz, and they suggested that we play in an ordinary pop band! But later, when the outstanding composer Rauf Haciyev began to lead the orchestra, we did accept the second, this time his personal proposal. At the same time, the musical director, renowned jazz pianist and arranger, Anatoliy Kalvarskiy, was invited from Leningrad. By the way, he later married an Azerbaijani woman, whom he simply kidnapped the way it is done in the east because her parents were against their marriage.

The orchestra was preparing to go on tour in Leningrad. Such well-known authors as Boris Sichkin and Arkadiy Arkanov worked on the programme. I remember we went to the audition and sang a couple of things from the repertoire of American jazz musicians. We were immediately accepted, but warned that the lyrics will be performed in Russian, and the names of the composers will be paraphrased into Russian. We had to use a trick just for the sake of performing jazz. So we started working with the variety orchestra.

- How did Lev Yelizavetskiy join your band?

- Some time later, one of the members of the quartet, Adil Nazarov, met a volleyball player from Moscow and soon shocked us with the news of his wedding. The young family decided to move to Russia. At that point, Lev Yelizavetskiy played the trumpet in the pop orchestra and often came to our rehearsals. He liked to listen to our music. After consulting each other, we asked him to sing with us. Thus, the quartet with its most famous completement took shape. Around the same time, we had to part with the variety orchestra. Then our good friend Murad Kazhlayev, son of the famous physician Kazhlayev, a graduate of the conservatory and secretary of the Composers' Union of Dagestan, invited us to work in Dagestan. Together with Rafiq Babayev, who led an instrumental band there, we created a quartet named after the famous town of Gunip. Within several months, we prepared a programme that was a huge success.

A few months later, we started preparing to go to Moscow for a preliminary audition, after which the four of us were to be sent to an international festival in Algeria. But at this time, the then Soviet Minister of Culture Yekateriza Furtseva received a letter from Azerbaijan, complaining that Dagestan was allegedly luring our musicians. Since a coup occurred in Algeria then, we could not go there. And in Dagestan they gave us friendly advice to think about the future and go back to our homeland. Once we returned, we had no jobs in the initial period. Of course, we all made some money on the side, but it was not for us... Finally, the director-general of Azkonsert, Ildrim Qasimov, asked us to go on a tour of the Far East along with Muslim Magomayev. That's when we thought about the name of our band. There were several options, one of which was "Vokin", which meant a vocal-instrumental quartet, and another - "Dord Dost" ("Four friends") (thinking). I do not even remember now who exactly coined the name "Qaya". But all four liked the name chosen for the newborn quartet so much that we went to the Far East under new "sails".

- Did your life change after you were "christened" with your new name?

- (Thinking) I think it did. I think this name brought us success in some way. In 1966, Moscow hosted an All-Soviet contest for the best performance of the Soviet song, and queries were sent out to all ministries. To the surprise of the authorities, no one applied to participate from Azerbaijan. And 20 days before the contest, the USSR minister of culture called Rauf Haciyev, the then Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan, demanding urgent preparations for the contest. Rauf muallim immediately invited us and said that Qaya will represent Azerbaijan at the All-Soviet contest. I should note that a little more than two weeks were left to the contest. We were given a special room at the Opera House, and we began to prepare for the trip. The head of our music delegation was Tofiq Quliyev. The contest consisted of three rounds - songs of pre-war years were to be perfomed in the first round, wartime songs in the second round and contemporary songs in the third round. The contest involved bands and artists, who subsequently became the face of Soviet music - Alla Pugacheva, Iosif Kobzon, Viktor Vuyachich...

- And how did you manage to prepare so well in a short period?

- (Laughs) We rehearsed all day. We only went out to eat and get some sleep. When we arrived in Moscow, we found out that all participants had been preparing for the contest for a year and had mulled over every single detail - from the repertoire to costumes. And we were even dressed differently - Teymur and I had dark blue suits, and Arif and Lev had light gray ones. But the organizers warned that all members of the quartet must be dressed alike. Not thinking too long, we called Oleg Lundstrem. His band was on leave at that point, and he said: "No problem, come to our base and choose your costumes." And in this contest, we performed in suits with well-known initials "O.L." (laughs). We sent Lev to draw the lots. We said we are Azerbaijanis and you are the only Jew - so you must be lucky. And just imagine - we got the first number! After this, we joked for a long time about Lev's "Jewish luck". We had to sing first in the morning, and it is incredibly difficult.for vocalists to sing at this time of day. We had to wake up at five in the morning to warm up before the contest and bring our voices to a normal condition.

The jury was impressive - Leonid Utesov, Revaz Lagidze, our Tofiq Quliyev and other prominent personalities of Soviet pop music. Our foursome went through all three phases. The jury did not hesitate much. Qaya easily took first place. By the way, in the contest Alla Pugacheva dropped out of the race after the second round, while Iosif Kobzon took second place...

In 1972, by the decision of the Council of Ministers, our quartet was granted the status of a state ensemble. According to Yuliy Gusman's idea, we began to prepare a new show. And for this purpose, we created a sextet - we invited Tamilla Agamiyeva and Gala Barinova. The show was based on the rock opera "Jesus Christ - Superstar". Jesus' part was performed by me, Judas - by Lev Yelizavetskiy and Magdalena - by Gala. This show was a huge success all over the Soviet Union! After that, there was a no less successful concert programme called "City Lights". The eminent director Mark Rozovskiy and Yuliy Gusman worked on this show, and the costume designer was Vyacheslav Zaytsev himself. The programme, consisting of several parts, lasted three hours. We performed so many songs - Azerbaijani folk songs, the music of the peoples of the USSR and friendly parodies about our colleagues. The programme was closed by a great final sketch called "Old Baku" with scenes from "Arsin Mal Alan", "O Olmasin, Bu Olsun", etc. By the way, no matter what country Qaya toured with this programme, its final part was sung in the local language, which amazed the audience every time.

- Rauf muallim, you are now giving all your strength to the children's vocal group Bari Bax, which received the official status of the Qaya national jazz ensemble...

- (Laughs) I spend almost all day with my children. And even though they have long become adults, for me they are still children. I remember that the famous jazz singer Kelly Jones performed in Baku a few years ago. Of course, Bari Bax could not miss such an event, and after the concert, we met up with her. She answered children's questions for a long time and patiently, and then gave them a master class. During the break, while the singer was resting, my girls and boys arranged a little concert. Kelly Jones was struck by their professional singing. "I spent an hour explaining to you how to sing jazz, and you, it turns out, know everything without me," the singer said at parting.

Another well-known jazz singer Coco York, who visited Baku and met my kids, wrote the song "Azerbaijan", which she then sang as a duet with Bari Bax. I want to pass the flag of Qaya to these children. The thread between the past and the present should not be interrupted. In turn, the 21st century Qaya will pass their knowledge to the kids of the new ensemble Bari Bax. Nobody knows how much time the Almighty has given me on earth. I very much want Qaya to be remembered and known after me...