Pavel Molina Ruiz

Pavel Molina Ruiz is a prominent Cuban musician (bassist) born in La Habana. He has been part of various groups, among them, El Tren de la Música Cubana: Los Van Van, of which he was their bassist from 2002 to 2012; a period in which the orchestra received, among other recognitions, two Latin Grammy nominations, with the albums "Chapeando" (2005) and "La Maquinaria" (2012).

He is the son of the legendary Cuban actor Enrique Molina, and Pavel decided to pursue music from a very young age. He began his musical studies at the age of 9 with the illustrious guitar teacher Leopoldina Núñez.

He studied at the "Fernando Carnicer" music school (Alejandro García Caturla). He was also a student at the "Félix Varela" music school (Ignacio Cervantes). Throughout his time at music school, he continued receiving private double bass lessons from maestro Orlando López Cachao. (Cachaito, from the Buena Vista Social Club).

He left Los Van Van in 2012 to pursue his own musical path. As he himself says, "I felt a strong desire to challenge myself with timba and songo elaborated in my personal style (…) following the legacy that maestro Juan Formell left me in Cuban bass and popular dance music. The greatest lesson I try to care for, realize and transmit is the great importance of the dancer. The type of music I make is focused on the dancer because we can play excellent music but if the dancer's feet don't move it means we have not achieved the objective of our work."

He has participated in the recording of more than 20 albums and/or DVDs, as well as various singles by different artists.

At the end of 2014 he releases his first single Cara de culpable, and in 2015 his hit La Conga de Magdalena comes out, with his own interpretation on bass along with a group of talented musicians and friends, including Alexander Abreu (vocals and trumpet).

In May 2016 his first album, Dale a tu bandera, is released, which includes the two singles already released and other original songs by him. The recording featured, among others, as guest musicians: Alexander Abreu, Idania Valdès (Buenavista Social Club), Leonardo Garrido and Big Naìmi Nagasaki, among others.

In January 2017 the album was officially launched at the illustrious Arca Social Club venue in Roma with a major concert that kicked off the first tour of SongoManía, which has performed in cities such as Milan, Parìs, Venecia and Cali (Colombia), where the group has received great success and popular acceptance.

In 2018 the orchestra traveled again to Colombia with a tour through the Colombian Pacific on the occasion of Carnavals. In July 2017, 3 new songs were released under the Timbatomica label and La SongoManìa signs an editorial contract with the prestigious Cuban record label EGREM with which the music video for the song Què me ha pasado contigo is released, directed by maestro Alejandro Valera Losa (Valerafilms) and recorded in Cuba.

In 2018 the young orchestra was invited by the Festival de la Cultura Cubana de Grosseto (Italia) and has released two more singles featuring Yenisel Valdès Fuentes, the female vocalist of Los Van Van. Also in 2018 their third music video, Te engañaron, is released, recorded in Italy and breaks viewership records in Colombia.