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It’s A Beautiful Day were an American rock active from the late 60s into the early 70s. They emerged from the famous San Francisco music scene, but unfortunately never manged to achieve the level of fame reached by their contemporaries.
Their debut album featured the line-up of David LaFlamme (vocals, violin), Pattie Santos (vocals), Linda LaFlamme (keyboards), Hal Wagenet (guitars), Mitchell Holman (bass) and Val Fuentes (drums). It was a remarkably innovative album for its time, blending elements of folk, jazz and psychedelic rock, with classical overtones and complex, intelligent song structures. The sound throughout is characterised by the jazzy, complex interplay between the instruments, dominated by LaFlamme’s virtuoso violin playing and his shared vocals with Santos. LaFlamme was the creative mastermind behind it, writing or co-writing all the songs and producing the record (it's wonderfully produced, and is a true delight for the ears). He came from a classical background, and played a five-string violin. The end product of all these factors definately made them stand out from their San Francisco peers, with a sound all of their own, but unfortunately they never managed to achieve much success. Much of this could reportedly be put down to their manager Matthew Katz, who had famously already screwed over Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape.
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It’s A Beautiful Day were an American rock active from the late 60s into the early 70s. They emerged from the famous San Francisco music scene, but unfortunately never manged to achieve the level of fame reached by their contemporaries.
Their fantastic second album featured a slightly different lineup to that of their debut - the LaFlammes had split up, and Linda LaFlamme had been replaced by Fred Webb, giving them the lineup of David LaFlamme (vocals, violin), Pattie Santos (vocals), Webb (keyboards), Hal Wagenet (guitars), Mitchell Holman (bass) and Val Fuentes (drums). Stylistically it was even more diverse than the first album, mixing rock, folk, jazz, country, blues, classical and psychedelia into a coherent whole (and with brief touches of bluegrass and flamenco!). David LaFlamme handled most of the vocals, Pattie Santos only really appearing as a backing vocalist. Includes a great cover of Fred Neil’s “The Dolphins”. Jerry Garcia appears as a guest musician, playing pedal steel guitar and banjo.
Though it contained no hit singles, Marrying Maiden was more successful than its predecessor on the album charts, reaching a modest #28.
It's A Beautiful Day (1969) <|> Choice Quality Stuff/Anytime (1971)
More from It's A Beautiful Day
Download
Their debut album featured the line-up of David LaFlamme (vocals, violin), Pattie Santos (vocals), Linda LaFlamme (keyboards), Hal Wagenet (guitars), Mitchell Holman (bass) and Val Fuentes (drums). It was a remarkably innovative album for its time, blending elements of folk, jazz and psychedelic rock, with classical overtones and complex, intelligent song structures. The sound throughout is characterised by the jazzy, complex interplay between the instruments, dominated by LaFlamme’s virtuoso violin playing and his shared vocals with Santos. LaFlamme was the creative mastermind behind it, writing or co-writing all the songs and producing the record (it's wonderfully produced, and is a true delight for the ears). He came from a classical background, and played a five-string violin. The end product of all these factors definately made them stand out from their San Francisco peers, with a sound all of their own, but unfortunately they never managed to achieve much success. Much of this could reportedly be put down to their manager Matthew Katz, who had famously already screwed over Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape.
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