Don Dean publicity photo
Don Hutcheson Commercial Photography, Abilene, Texas

Austin’s Ol’ Blue Eyes

When Don Dean arrived at The Club Seville in Austin, he sought out a mix of local pop and jazz acts, including The Kings IV (headed by Michael Stevens, who would later serve as The Club Seville’s house band under the name The Michael Stevens IV), Geneva and Her Gentlemen, and rising stars from afar, including Vietnam’s exotic songbird Bach-Yen, the jazzy Colorado-based Lee Arlano Trio (both also Sonobeat recording artists), Hollywood’s Paul New and the Crew (who Sonobeat also recorded but whose material was never released), and nationally-known singers Tony Daryll, Mavis Rivers, and Ketty Lester.

Almost as soon as The Club Seville officially opened in January 1966, Don signed on for a package of weekly KAZZ-FM. live remote broadcasts, all hosted by KAZZ station manager Bill Josey Sr., a tradition that continued through KAZZ’s final live broadcast on New Year’s Eve 1967. Don also frequently performed with The Club Seville’s house bands (which at one point included the Lee Arlano Trio) and could belt &rrsquo;em out with the best of the pop stylists of the era, his voice and phrasing reminiscent in many ways of that other Dean (Martin), for which he earned the moniker “Austin’s Ol’ Blue Eyes”. KAZZ’s remote broadcasts from The Club Seville led to a strong friendship between Bill Sr. and Don, so it was almost inevitable that when Bill Sr. co-founded Austin-based Sonobeat Records in May 1967, Don joined the label’s embryonic roster. Don’s Sonobeat single Night Life, a production subsidized by The Club Seville, became the label’s third stereo 45 RPM release.

Lee Arlano Trio backing tracks for Don Dean’s single

The Michael Stevens IV backing tracks for Don Dean’s single

The “A” side of Don Dean’s Sonobeat single

The high-contrast black and white picture sleeve

If any Sonobeat recording fully embraced Austin’s indigenous pop jazz scene in the second half of the 1960s, it’s Don’s freewheelin’ interpretation of Rodgers and Hart’s Where or When (from the 1939 Broadway musical Babes in Arms), the single’s “B” side. The “A” side, Night Life, was Don’s literate and lively reading of Willie Nelson’s 1959 classic, a big hit in 1960 for country singer Ray Price. The original backings for both singles and for a third song, Bye, Bye Blackbird, were furnished by the Lee Arlano Trio while it was doing a stint as The Club Seville’s house band, but Bill Sr. wasn’t happy with the Arlano arrangements, which didn&squo;t leave space for the vocal overdub. Although a contemporaneous article by Wray Weddell in the Austin Statesman newspaper credited Paul New and The Crew as the backing band, there are no such tapes in the Sonobeat archives. Both sides of Don’s single, as released, were backed by the versatile Michael Stevens IV, the jazzy combo that also backed Sonobeat’s Fran Nelson and Bach-Yen singles in 1968.

Recorded in the spacious Embassy Room at The Club Seville on September 30, 1967, Don’s instrumental backing tracks were mixed “wet” – in a single pass – to a quarter-inch 2-track Ampex 354. Don overdubbed his vocals a day later at the KAZZ-FM studios in downtown Austin. The result was pure, adult pop jazz. And, of course, in 1967, jazz rhymed with KAZZ, which was how this relationship all started.

Don’s single got the third Sonobeat custom picture sleeve, a high contrast photo of Don in a layout created by Sonobeat co-founder Rim Kelley“Rim Kelley” was the pseudonym used by Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Jr. as a radio deejay in Austin, Texas, during the 1960s and as a Sonobeat producer from 1967 to 1970., who also engineered Don’s Sonobeat sessions. The single sold surprisingly well, not just at The Club Seville as a must-have souvenir to remind lovebirds of a delightful evening of dining and dancing, but also at downtown Austin music stores J. R. Reed and The Record Shop.

Notwithstanding his formidable stage presence and affable personality, Don was modest and, instead of recording an album for Sonobeat, encouraged Bill Sr. to spend his time and resources recording other performers who graced The Club Seville’s stage. As Don’s contract with the Crest ended in June 1968, for his last hurrah he brought back one of The Club Seville’s most popular and exciting acts, Tony Daryll, who Sonobeat wanted to record but who already had another record contract in place. When Tony’s two-week run ended on June 22, 1968, Don’s run at The Club Seville also ended. In July 1968, Don started to put together plans to open a new dinner and dance club in Austin, but nothing came of it. But by September 1968, Don was hosting a one-hour weekday big band and jazz music program, The World of Dean, on Austin’s KHFI-FM. Rim Kelley produced and engineered Don’s KHFI program, which was pre-recorded for several months before switching to a live in-studio program. In 1969, Don emceed the Austin Aqua Beauty pageant, presented in conjunction with the Austin Aqua Festival, and, in 1970, took over as emcee for the Miss Highland Lakes Universe Pageant held in Kingsland, Texas. Pageantry in his blood, in 1974 Don was named chairman and emcee of the Miss Sun & Fun Beauty Pagent, held at the Austin Municipal Auditorium. In 1976, Don joined with Austin country musician Wink Tyler to open the Austin Country Studio, a recording facility on Clawson Road in south Austin. Don resurfaced on the night club scene in April 1978 as “Ringmaster” at the then-new Circus Club at Austin’s Villa Capri Hotel, where he produced and directed the, yes, circus-themed nightly entertainment.

Don Dean’s new gig as “Ringmaster” at The Circus Club in Austin’s Villa Capri Motor Inn (1978)