Do you like swing? Dancing? How about electric swing? If so, then you will LOVE Caravan Palace. This Paris-based electric gypsy jazz band, formed in 2005, quickly won hearts of thousands of fans around the world. Their first album, released in 2008, firmly stayed in European music charts for months. Caravan recently released their second double album, Panic, and it swings even harder. The music is an eclectic blending of electronica and jazz. They love Massive Attack and Daft Punk as well as American jazz from the 1930-1940s, drawing inspiration from Fletcher Henderson and Django Reinhardt. The result – swinging madness that will burn your feet!
Caravan Palace recently kicked off their US tour in Boston and played NYC on 2 April. Best Buy Theatre, right in the middle of Times Square (that area that real New Yorkers avoid any time of day and night), exceeded my expectations and turned out to be a great place to see this insane ensemble. The venue is spacious, with plenty of standing room and additional seating space in the back. It easily accommodated hundreds of fans who broke down dancing when the band hit the stage. Great acoustics and beautiful lighting made for an amazing experience as well.
The band was swinging so hard that it was impossible to listen to them without feeling like dancing, or at least tapping your feet. Singer, Colotis Zoé, radiated electrifying energy; her powerful vocals and contagious dancing were terrific. She sure kept the audience dancing like mad. She hardly ever stood motionless and her whole presence projected happiness, spilling from the stage into the raving audience. Everyone in the band is a versatile multi-instrumentalist, switching effortlessly from one instrument to the other. 
The bassist Charles Delaporte played a stripped down double bass as well as keyboards and guitar. Violinist Hugues Payen danced around the stage with his electric violin and sang while the percussionist Paul-Marie Barbier made crazy sounds on the vibraphone.
They sure put on a good show and it looked they were having a lot of fun playing as well!
Great band to see live! It’s happy music that will keep your feet moving, I promise. After the show was over I was left with one burning question: When are they coming back to NYC?
And now check out this rad video of “Jolie Coquine”:
Anna Yatskevich is Flowers In A Gun’s glamorous jazz & beyond critic! Catch more reviews from her here and follow her on Twitter @jazzaddikt.
