Good day my friends, and happy VE day, day of victory over the Fascism in Europe, May 9th, 1945.

While looking for an interesting song for this week’s blog entry, I came across El Ruso y Su Banda, a nice band from Baracoa, Cuba.

Although not Russian, Eduardo Navarro Toirac was known in Baracoa as “el Ruso” for his European good looks and his Soviet like professionalism and discipline which he encouraged by personal example the groups he led over the years.

Coming from Baracoa, a city in the eastern Oriente province of Cuba, Eduardo, percussionist, lead singer, band leader and composer, started his musical career at 8 at the Ho Chi Min musical school in Guantanamo.
He later participated in various musical projects and groups, such as Las Camillitos, Group 467, Mereson, and Conjunto Campesino Guama, and Cuarteto Tropical.
In 1997 he formed his own group, el Ruso y Su Banda, playing both traditional and popular Cuban music.

Since then, the band has been playing Son, Bolero, Timba, Changui, Merengue, Kiriba, Nengon, and other Afro Cuban musical styles on their own, and along with such famous ensembles such as Original De Manzanillo, Son 14 and Compay Segundo.

The group released many singles and also a fine CD titled “a Las Cinco en la Manana”, from which this song, “Con Permiso Llegue Yo, is.

Disfruten!