Friday 14 June 2019

Azerbaijan composer Rafiq Babayev













Sometimes a brilliant artist or composer is utterly forgotten due to the misfortune of being restricted to one small country, and if that place is as secluded and isolated from the Western world as Azerbaijian, it's obvious the reverse would have been far more surprising.  Add to that his music is very much indebted to the European jazz world of the sixties and the soundtrack world of the 70s, despite being made almost a decade later, and you will have even less expectation for ultimate survival.  Nonetheless his music, which is mostly made for (home country) films, I think, is some of the rarest quality music yet to be unearthed in vinyl format.  You can see for example on discogs the sheer paucity of listings, when you compare with what has been accumulated on the wikipedia (English) page to tease us.

The intro to his bio:

Rafig Farzi oglu Babayev (Azerbaijani: Rafiq Farzi oğlu Babayev, 31 March 1937 – 19 March 1994) was an Azerbaijani jazz musician, composer, conductor, arranger, author of scores for films, and People's Artist of Azerbaijan (1993).

I am particularly interested in the one soundtrack for a movie translated as "I Want to Understand" (psych. thriller, according to a brief description, not databased in imdb) from 1980, with the following gorgeous, Rocchi-like electric piano sound:





If that's not enough to convince you, consider this track called Anlamaq isteyirem:





You might be even more shocked to find out he was adept at some very interesting folk-tinged fusion (akin to Anor's Pomegranate):





This, a track called Daglarga bayram, for what it's worth.  It reminded me too of Russian E. Artemiev's 'orchestral' (not solo synth) works, like Warmth of the Earth.

In terms of his jazz-pianistic skill, consider the portrait:





Sorry for the American patriots out there, this is as good-- if not better-- than anything from the US jazz musicians' canon.  For those like me bored of those old standards and overplayed American artists like Bill Evans, this is so gratifying...

Any information regarding where to find more of his music, especially the LPs, is welcome, though I'm guessing, based on the 'lost music' or even lost art principle, that the earliest unearthed or discovered is usually the best work, that there won't be too much else worth hearing not included in the packages below.  (People are more likely to save or remember things they love dearly.)





2 comments:


  1. PART ONE
    make zippy great again:
    https://www95.zippyshare.com/v/qGRb7Tde/file.html
    for those hit with the trade tariffs:
    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/ywkdb8



    PART TWO
    Another CD with more music (not included in package above):
    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/mx246b

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks a lot - much appreciated
    especially for the sendspace links

    ReplyDelete