Flamenco Caravan, while being true to flamenco forms, also blends the band members’ favourite musical influences of Latin, jazz, rock, sacred and blues, capturing the imagination of the soul through guitar, rhythm and song. Between lightning-speed guitar flourishes, melting vocals, and the entire band’s driving and grooving rhythms and electric chemistry, audience members of every age have been won over. The music has been described as "beautiful and magical", "moving", "amazing in its variety" and "alternately soothing and stirring to the soul". The comment most often offered to the band after a performance is, "I couldn’t sit still! I just wanted to get up and dance!"
Formed in 1999, Flamenco Caravan has evolved to include Esteban Figueroa on lead guitar, Susanna DiGiuseppe on keyboards and vocals, Tony Agostino on rhythm guitar, Jim Differ on drums and percussion, and Greg McIntosh on bass. Often additional musicians on percussion, backing vocals, trumpet and other instruments add to the band’s full sound.
The group has opened for acts such as Colin James, Jeff Healey, Paul Shaffer and America, and their performances at the 2006 Owen Sound, Red Rock and Cambridge folk festivals all received standing ovations.
In 2005, Flamenco Caravan recorded Love’s Philosophy and launched the CD on October 7th at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium to an 800+ audience. General Manager of the auditorium, Bob Halverson, commented, "That, in my mind, was one of the finest shows I’ve ever seen in that building. You expect someone on the international stage to be good, but when you find someone in Thunder Bay who is as good or better, that ices it for you."
Flamenco Caravan has been interviewed by CBC Radio Toronto and its music has been featured on a variety of provincial and national programs. Both Love's Philosophy and Flamenco Caravan's second CD, Alchemy, have been successfully auditioned by CBC Radio which distributed the CD's to all of its stations across Canada. Love’s Philosophy was named a top new CD pick of 2006 by CBC Radio Music Resources out of an estimated 800 other CD's submitted in 2006. Alchemy was chosen as a CBC Radio top new CD pick of 2007.
On April 28, 2007, Flamenco Caravan launched Alchemy at a concert attended by over 1100 fans at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium. The band was delighted to perform at the Ottawa Jazz Festival on June 27 and
Toronto ’s Hugh’s Room on June 30 to hundreds of enthusiastic new fans. Currently, Flamenco Caravan is writing new music while continuing to promote Alchemy.
