AT CARNEGIE HALL

This is the only official recording available of It's A Beautiful Day in a live environment. The concert took place around the time of the band's third album "Choice quality stuff/Anytime". It is strange then that only one track from that album, "The Grand Camel Suite" (bizarrely named for a three minute song), is included. Other songs from the new album may have been performed of course, but if they were they have been omitted in favour of cover versions and older numbers.

The album opens with "Give your woman what she wants", a song written by the legendary Taj Mahal. Pattie Santos, who is far more up-front throughout this album than she is on the studio recordings, gives the performance a real JANIS JOPLIN / BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY feel.

Three tracks from the magnificent first album appear, the first being a spirited version of "A hot summer day". After a fairly nondescript interpretation of Rod Taylor's "Angels and animals", we launch into an 8½ minute run through of "Bombay calling", also from the first album. This quickly becomes a loose improvisation, Fred Webb performing Linda LaFlamme's original organ contribution commendably. David LaFlamme's violin work is too far back in the mix though, especially on the softer drum and bass section.

As the band were between bassists at the time, the position is filled by Tom Fowler (who would go on to work with Frank Zappa). Fowler's composition "Going to another party", another song which does not appear on an IABD studio album, is included here. The song is a spirited, upbeat number, but rather anonymous and if truth be told not very good. Surprisingly, the band's second album "Marrying maiden" is all but ignored, "Good lovin'" being the only song present. The band are clearly attempting to rock Carnegie Hall with a succession of frantic numbers played at breakneck speed.

The new song "The grand camel suite" is actually a country fuelled violin burst of little consequence. The album closes with a 9 minute rendition of "White bird". The up-tempo numbers which precede it rather spoil the initial effect, but the song's beauty soon comes through. David laFlamme's vocal is generally much further back in the mix than that of Santos'. The rendition is quite sparse, lacking the lush production of the original, with the extra length being made up primarily through an extended guitar solo from Bill Gregory which merges into a violin section by LaFlamme. There is though, no denying the classic nature of the song.

The Carnegie Hall audience are polite but restrained in their appreciation, perhaps reflecting their bewilderment with some of the song selections. While the album contains extended versions of three of the band's finest songs, for me they are inferior to those contained on the band's wonderful first album.

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