El Ruso y Su Banda (The Russian and His Band) is an extraordinary group of musicians from an extraordinary place, Baracoa, Cuba. Baracoa is in the eastern region of Cuba, known as Oriente - the home of traditional Cuban music. It is here in the countryside of Oriente where elements of Spanish and African music and dance traditions fused into forms distinctly Cuban.

El Ruso (Eduardo Navarro Toirac) is the driving force behind this remarkable group. Band leader, composer, percussionist and lead singer, El Ruso, while not of Russian descent, got his nickname for his Muscovite good looks, powerful personality and professional attitude (the USSR and Cuba were close allies for almost forty years).

Originally a percussionist on bongo and conga with various groups, El Ruso pulled together the best musicians in the area to form his own band in 1996. Known for their superb sound and high energy, the band is widely acknowledged as the premier group in Baracoa, providing essential musical nourishment to this remote region.

Organo Guantánamo is a seven member group from Guantánamo that is upholding the tradition of barrel organ street music that originated in France, traveled to Haiti and was brought to eastern Cuba by Haitian immigrants. This particular organ was made in Holguín province and has sixty-six wooden pipes that range from high flute voices to bassy trombone sounds.

The musical notation is notched on thick paper sheets and run through the instrument by a band member who is the organ grinder. Percussion instruments are the traditional accompaniment.

Organo Guantánamo has a repertoire comprised of older latin music standards. What makes their organ group distinct is the dynamic sound of their rhythm section that infuses the music with a distinctly contemporary sound inspired by the latest Cuban rhythm styles.

Gerves Bordes y Son de Santiago is a new band composed of five veteran musicians from Santiago. The band was formed in January of 2000 and has been rehearsing non stop to refine and perfect their sound. These men, who each have a long history performing traditional music from Santiago, have become recently re-energized by the latest upsurge in popularity of Cuban music around the World.

The group was brought together by Juan Tejera, who is a writer and producer at the Santiago radio station. Juan is the group manager and hopes to someday take the group on tour.

Gerves Bordes, the lead singer in Son de Santiago, is also a prolific composer whose songs are played by numerous other groups. In the band Gerves plays guitar and sings lead in his distinctive high pitched resonant style.

Second voice in the band is Adolfo Cesar who also plays trumpet and maracas. Adolfo is a prominent man in the music community in Santiago in his role as Vice-President of the Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC).

While largely unknown in the United States, people all over Cuba know the music of Grupo Manguaré. For the past thirty years Manguaré has been at the forefront of the traditional popular music scene in Havana.

The founders of the group were originally music students studying together at one of the government sponsored music academies in Havana in the early 70's.

Now over thirty years later the group is still going strong and has performed throughout Cuba as well as traveling to numerous countries in Central and South America, USSR, United States, and Europe.

The musicians of Manguaré are important contributors to the "Nueva Cancion" music movement and are virtuosos in composing and performing the Cuban music style known as "son". Having recorded 10 LP's, the group is best known for it's songs "En Casa del Licenciado" and "Junto a Mi Fusil Mi Son".

While some of the musicians in the group have changed over the years, (including Barbarito Torres of Buena Vista Social Club fame) central to Manguare is bassist Andrés Pedroso. As a founding member, and now band leader, he is also a remarkable composer, having written and arraigned most of Manguare's original material. Pedroso has a unique style that blends traditional Cuban music with jazz breaks and sophisticated harmonies that creates a fresh and exuberant sound.

The Pedroso talent has dramatically increased in Manguare today with the inclusion of his two daughters, Alejandra Pedroso on vocals, and Edelmas Pedroso Zulueta on flute, saxophone, and vocals. Together with the rest of the band they form a dynamo of talent and energy that present the full range of popular Cuban and Caribbean music.

José Aquiles started playing music in 1972 and soon became involved in the Movimiento de la Nueva Trova (New Trova Movement), an important style of music in Cuba that celebrates love as well as the revolution. In 1980 he began his professional career playing in various groups and writing music for theater, ballet, and the cinema, while also entering many music writing competitions.

José has toured extensively in Central and South America, Europe and Russia, and has performed with some great international artists such as Gilberto Gil (Brazil), Pablo Milanes (Cuba), Sonia Silvestre (Dominican Republic), and Augusto Blanca (Cuba).

Besides touring, José has released three records of his own music, and is also featured on several Cuban music anthologies.

Morenos del Changüí (brown skin people of changüí) are a group of talented musicians who perform the traditional music of Guantánamo. Formed in 1996, "Los Morenos" are known for their exuberant performances and beautiful original music, these songs often adopted by other music groups in the area.

Ariel Dauidinot Brooks is the band leader, lead singer, and principle composer for the group, with the further distinction of having won several competitions for his song writing. Most of the members of the group also perform with "Babul", one of the top folkloric performing troupes in Guantánamo.

The groups rehearse daily in a large space adjacent to the local museum and perform regularly at civic events. Together these two groups form a remarkable collective of musicians, dancers, and artists, who embody and express the full range of music and dance styles unique to Guantánamo.

Changüí is the typical dance music of Guantánamo, a province in eastern Cuba, with a unique history of cultural intermixture. Guantánamo unlike other regions in Cuba, was not primarily established by the Spanish, but by French colonists fleeing the Haitian revolution of 1804. Not as well known as other genres of Cuban music, changüí is related to the son, but different in a number of respects.