Gunesh

On the occasion of this retrospective on Gunesh, I decided to include an interview conducted for the RottersClub website, which I had the great honour of doing in 2011 with Stanislav Morozov — saxophonist, artistic director and, along with Rishad Shafi, one of the key figures of the group. At the time, Morozov was living in Germany, where he still resides today, continuing to perform with the same passion and dedication as in the past, maintaining his work with the bands mentioned in the interview and also devoting himself to music teaching.
This first-hand testimony offers us a personal and insightful look into the history, challenges and triumphs of Gunesh, narrated by one of its central protagonists.

Hi Stanislav, can you tell us when and how you joined Gunesh?
I joined in 1975. Gunesh had existed since 1970, but they were very little known outside Turkmenistan. I knew a musician from another band who was also a member of Gunesh. It was through him that I became part of the group. What impressed me most was that they had very good equipment, the pay was good, and I didn’t have to work too much. They also didn’t have many concerts; their base was Turkmenistan State TV.

I know that during the communist regime every VIA group had to have a musical director. Were you the band’s musical director?
I took on this role very late. At first, the musical director was a man appointed by the Party. That’s what allowed the group to get such excellent equipment.

Your first EP was released on the B-side of an ABBA record and contains four traditional folk songs. Were you in any way “forced” to play folk music?
No, we were not forced to play folk music. It was almost the opposite. That was our own choice, but we were obliged to play the Party’s patriotic music celebrating Lenin.

The album Rishad Shafi Presents Gunesh doesn’t include all the songs from the first two albums. Why?
That album was simply a mix of songs from the previous records — a kind of “Best Of”. I don’t know why not all of the tracks were included.

I was saddened to learn that Rishad died on November 4th, 2009. What happened?
He had a heart attack. He was playing in a football team made up entirely of music stars and had an attack during the game. He died on the pitch. His football team once played in a kind of “world championship” against the Italian national singers’ team.

Can you share some memories of Rishad?
The first impression anyone ever had of him was that he seemed Italian. He had all the typical traits of the classic Italian stereotype: temperamental, emotional, very expressive with his hands, full of life and energy, and with a great passion for music. One could almost say he loved music more than women.
Music was his life. He breathed, ate and drank music. He always had new ideas and big plans. On stage he was so energetic and overwhelming with his music that the rest of the world, with all its problems, simply ceased to exist. For more information I recommend the website www.rishad-shafi.ru
, although unfortunately it’s entirely in Russian. (Editor’s note: the website is now inactive, but still accessible via the Web Archive.)

What were your sources of inspiration in the 1970s?
Our main sources of inspiration were Bill Chase, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago, Keith Emerson, Chick Corea, and later Tower of Power. But our greatest inspiration was Bill Chase.

Despite Gunesh’s intense live activity, no live album was ever released. Is there any chance that one might be published in the future?
We didn’t release many albums because it was very expensive. The first album was financially possible because we won a competition. For the second one, we had to wait until we had saved enough money — it took us a year and a half to put the funds together. It’s very unlikely that Gunesh will ever release another album. There are several reasons for this. During Perestroika the band had to earn its own money. We would have had to perform more concerts and work harder than ever, leaving no time for recordings.
Before Perestroika, our job at the state TV station guaranteed us a regular income. That ended, and with it many of our goals — and, to some extent, our motivation. Moreover, our style of music didn’t appeal to the new government. It wasn’t political and therefore of no interest to the new order. Our music was a bit too esoteric for the masses. In Russia, the masses were looking for new musical styles rather than Russian music from the 1970s. There simply wasn’t much of a market for our particular style.

When did Gunesh split up?
Over the years, Gunesh constantly changed its lineup, gradually becoming smaller until it was reduced to just two members: Rishad and me. Naturally, after Rishad’s death in 2009 and my immigration to Germany, Gunesh ceased to exist. Shortly before his death, however, Rishad did a few concerts alone under the name Gunesh. So technically we could say that the last appearances of Gunesh took place in 2009.

Are you still in contact with any former members of Gunesh, and do you still play together?
A couple of former Gunesh members live here in Munich, and I meet them from time to time, but we don’t play together. I keep in touch with the others by phone. Without Rishad, the heart of Gunesh is gone. There is no reason to play together anymore.

What is your musical activity nowadays?
For several years now, I’ve been playing in a group called the Pavel Sandorf Big Band. We are the house band for a very popular German TV show called Fastnacht in Franken. We also perform as the band for a very successful theatre duo that tours all over Germany.
The Pavel Sandorf Big Band also plays with the singer from this duo (Volker Heißmann) in another TV show called Das ist Heißmann. Besides that, I have fourteen students to whom I give music lessons. It’s not a lot, but I’m very happy with everything.