FunkFreak75 The debut album of ethnic folk-jazz-rock fusion from Turkmenistan. Reminds me of the early albums of Chilean band LOS JAIVAS.

Line-up / Musicians: - Khajiriza Ezizov / vocals - Ilyaz Redzepov / vocals - Mikhail Loguntsov / guitar - Shamamed Byashimov / keyboards - Stanislav Morozov / tenor saxophone, flute - Yusif Aliev / trombone - Alexander Stasukevich / trumpet - Shamil Kurmanov / trumpet - Vladimir Belousov / bass - Rishad Shafi / percussions

1. "Жиги-Жиги (Девушка) / The Girl" (3:42) great jazz-rock fusion rhtyhm lines with jazz-rock horns and odd 1960s-sounding group vocal singing of folk/ethnic music. (9.25/10)

2. "Туни Деря" (5:28) another set up of great, amazingly tight jazz-rock funk fusion. Then, at 0:42, everybody clears out so that an electrified traditional stringed instrument (balalaika?) steps in to solo for the next minute. It feels as if the band is all there, sitting and watching with the utmost respect as their elder tells his old tale. At 1:45 electric guitar and then drums and bass start to join in. When everybody's back in, the band sounds as if they're channelling the Mahavishnu Orchestra. By 3:00 the music has settled into a Latin-sounding rhythm pattern over which several male vocalists begin singing what feels like their traditional (Arabian) call-and-response vocals. Electric guitar takes the next solo in the fifth minute. These vocals almost sound West African! It just illustrates to me how small the planet really is--how linked are human musical traditions. (9.5/10)

3. "Акжа Кепдери / White Dove" (4:03) opens like an old blues (maybe blues-rock) song from the 1960s with full band playing low and slow while expert jazz guitar and tenor sax play with Elvis-like male vocal crooning with deeply ambiguous feeling: He's obviously expressing deep feelings; Is he sad or happy? (9/10)

4. "Восточный Сувенир / The Oriental Souvenir" (4:58) heavy rock-based music opens this one sounding like something from Larry Coryell or some Latin percussion band. Wonderful sax-marimba interplay after the bridge in the beginning of the second minute. Eventually Stanislav Morozov's sax and rest of the band drown out the tuned percussion as the band drifts into a more smoothly-flowing motif for Stan's sax to continue his wonderful soloing. Bass and drums are outstanding, as are horn section accents and banks. I'm sure that Don Ellis would be proud! (8.875/10)

5. "Кечпелек (Баллада о судьбе) / Bitter Fate / (The Ballad of Destiny)" (7:08) more Arabic-sounding vocals with some electrified oud-like instrument and percussives supporting with flurries and flourishes. After 90 seconds the rock support solidifies in a slow, dirge-like rhythm track with Hammond, electric bass, and straight-time drums. The oud-like electric guitar continues throughout all this, even when the liturgical singer cuts out, leaving a trail of perfectly tremoloed melody lines up to the odd break and transition starting at 3:55. Bass and drums get to start the next very-Andalusian-sounding section as the full bank of horns joins in. The vocalist returns, continuing in a form and style that seems to connote religious fervor. Great bass and horn play with and beneath the singer. Once he cuts out more impressive Don Ellis-like play ensues. I swear that finish is Latin American! (13.375/15)

6. "Ялан / Cheating" (2:44) part Latin/Herb Alpert-like music, part obvious local ethnic traditional music--with support of Hammond organ and horn section. (8.666667/10)

7. "Коне Гузер / At the Old Creek" (4:15) electric guitar and electric piano support the impassioned ethnic vocal of one of the outstanding lead vocalists (wish I knew which one). Great latent tension hiding within this one--tension that the electric guitar, bass guitar, drumming, and saxophone do their best to release to the wind. So many textures and emotions conveyed in this masterpiece. (9.75/10)

8. "Арманым Галды / Separation (Parting)" (3:12) opens like a traditional South American song before turning to jazz-rock at the end of the first minute. GREAT bass, drums, rhythm guitar, and horn section work beneath the lyrics that just gets better between the vocal sections. Wow! These guys can really play! (And this lead vocalist can really sing!) (9/10)

Total Time 35:30

I've heard that Gunesh's next album, released in 1984, is even better than this one!

A-/five stars; a wonderful display of traditional/ethnic music blended seemlessly, no, virtuosically, into rock and jazz-rock and Jazz-Rock Fusion forms. Definitely an experience I highly recommend for all prog lovers.

siLLy puPPy The GUNESH ENSEMBLE (Гунеш) actually formed all the way back in 1970 and went through various lineups. In the beginning the ensemble was featured on the State TV And Radio Company Of The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, now more familiar as Turkmenistan. While the band began as a vocal group with supporting instrumentation, it was the drummer Rishad Shafi who had the itch to pursue the jazz-fusion world and attracted other members who wished to do the same.

Throughout the 70s the band entered contests throughout the Soviet Union and won first prize in many of the competitions for their highly developed take on traditional mughams and jazz improvisations. A mugham is a very complex musical art that combines classical poetry and musical improv. It is a modal system, but unlike Western systems it is not only used with scales but rather is a collection of melodies that enrich the improvisation that is enhanced for a specific event. This can mean increased intensity, rising pitches or even fusing poetic interpretation into musical form. This is a very common art form in this part of the world.

After ten long years and countless performances the GUNESH ENSEMBLE finally released their debut album Гунеш (GUNESH) in 1980. Unlike the spectacular second release and mega-masterpiece “Вижу Землю (Looking At Earth)” which dosed everything jazz-world-fusion-rock in heavy steroids, this debut release finds the band on a less ambitious journey although it is by no means a sleeper. Whereas the second album finds any global influence fair game, this one is more focused on traditional Turkmen music with a healthy jazzy horn section mixed with some veritable progressive rock which is heard mainly in the drum section as well as with the guitar. This first release has a lot more tracks focusing on vocals and harmonies which are less frantic without the playful trumpets, trombones, flutes and keyboards that dominate the instrumentals.

While this debut album by the GUNESH ENSEMBLE isn’t nearly as brilliant as the second, it is a beautiful debut that takes you to a lonely corner of the globe where very little is known to the average Westerner and extremely well progressive music like this shouldn’t be missed. This album had only one vinyl release in 1980 and is probably impossible to find but fear not. Rishad Shafi released the first two albums on CD titled “Rishad Shafi Presents Gunesh.”