The forthcoming 45 rpm podcast will not be just focused on the music performed by the Soviet musicians in the 70’s entirely but on the music filled up with the fat drums, blazing horns, wah-wah guitars and other elements which make the GROOVE.


is a quite unique phenomenon in its original essence as the soviet bands and music makers had a very limited access to the production of the like-minded American musicians that made the direct replication and imitation hardly possible. It provoked many of them to create in their own unique way and stimulated the original sound development. The Soviet censor system was likely to contribute in its notorious way to the developing Soviet funk sound , cutting off the “Americanized attitude”, but what is more possible it affected the amount of tunes released in all similar genres in such a negative way as well. Following the aim to investigate more in the the soviet funk sound history we took a brief inteview wih Georgiy Garanyan, the soviet “Melodiya” band leader in the 70’s whose records could also be heard in the forthcoming podcast.

For the collectors who keep digging about, Georgiy Garanyan is the foundation. His arrangements on the Soviet and foreign tunes made them sound in a more dynamic and groovy way which was unusual for the early 70’s music. His “Melodiya” releases such as “The Popular Mosaic”, “The Familiar Melodies”, “The Labyrinth” as well as some others are extremely hard-to-find records in Russia, and the collectors from abroad feel like paying huge sums to grab these gems on vinyl. On of the hottest records he ever produced is “Romance For Lovers” OST as one can find a few tough instrumentals on it: “the maneuvers” and “The Search” performed by the Garanyan’s band.


Stanislav: Georgiy Aramovich, the definition of “soviet jazz” is engrained in the musical literature. What is the reason in your opinion for not establishing of the definition “soviet funk”, and in fact the very word “funk” could be rarely found in that period ("jazz-rock" is more frequent to appear), but nevertheless the elements of it can be heard in the various tunes of the Soviet republics bands.
Georgiy Garanyan: The issue of the definitions is just of a musicological nature, and a very subjective one. They play the role of no great importance to me. (I’m a practical person and I don’t learn from the books). The most important thing here is that we can understand what we are talking about.

Stanislav: Since 1973 you became the “Melodiya” band leader, and started introducing different electronic sound effects like “fuzz”, ”wah-wah” pedals alongside the typical orchestral set of instruments. What was the impulse for you to leaving the jazz band instruments behind?
Georgiy Garanyan://I have been working on the electronic arrangements since 1985, when MIDI was yet to appear. The great part of my soundtracks was recorded at home but few people to know about that fact, as the rhythmical base was recorded and it was made in a way of imitating of a real live band performing. As for the effects used I suppose their presence doesn’t change the matter. The main point here they are not supposed to mingle but assist the solo overtone or the orchestral one.

Stanislav: How it became you started to introduce funk as a genre into your creative activity? What inspired you and what was your source of information?
Georgiy Garanyan: Actually I had no idea at that moment what was called funk exactly. There was something in the air around it, talking not only about me personally but everyone.

Stanislav: There’s a quite a large number of stories about the Soviet censorship severity. Had you to fight against the System?
Georgiy Garanyan: Yes I had to… But thanks God it’s all gone and buried…

Stanislav: Were there any examples to follow among the American funk artists for you? Was there a chance to meet any of them?
Georgiy Garanyan: Those examples to follow were Brecker brothers, Buddy Rich, Stevie Wander, Ginno Vanelli

Stanislav: Have you any interest in nowadays funk scene? Don’t you feel like performing something from the 70’s Melodiya stuff?
Georgiy Garanyan: //We’re working currently on the CD titles “Time-Tested 2", something from the tracklist is what you call the soviet funk. In my text-book “The musical arrangement” (many of the musical college students study from it) there’s a lot of information about the musical genres of that period.

Stanislav: And in the conclusion a few words you can address to the modern youth?
Georgiy Garanyan: I don’t know what to address to the modern youth actually. I’m not an educator… The only thing I can do is to show what I can do and wish them to be accompanied by the good music all the way.

And now about my upcoming 45 rpm mix in brief. This mix clocks in about 70 minutes and you are about to hear 35 records performed by the bands from the different Soviet republic: Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Latvia, Azerbaidzan etc plus a piece of the Soviet musician played by the Czech band. It goes without saying all the tunes mixed were released as “Melodiya” records on the self-titled label. Many of the records in my mix are hard-to-find.

That’s the main problem in Soviet groove digging, if you are to buy an American record pay plenty of money and get it, in this case sometimes it’s absolutely impossible to find a rare Soviet record. The point here is if the collectors have a record in their vinyl stock they are not to sell it to you, in other words there’s no supply!

Kind regards,
Stanislav (Soul:Good)

http://www.urbansoul.ru/downloads/US221_45RPM_14_(urbansoul.ru).mp3


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