Keith Allison
Keith Allison
Doug Sahm
Doug Sahm
San Antonio branch AFM
I got my first card in 1960
San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo
San Antonio Little Theater

Music in San Antonio, TX -- 1959-1964

"Extracurricular" experiences

San Antonio Music Images

Keith Allison Combo - 1960
  • Played local "sock hops" for radio station jocks (KTSA, KONO)
  • Won local Coca Cola talent show -- we beat our local rival, Gene Kurtz's band, the Paradons (thanx Ric Sasse!) from Alamo Heights HS across town, and flew to Ft. Worth (my first flight -- Boeing 707) for the regionals
  • The Band
    • Keith Allison - guitar, vocals, red suede shoes
    • Hewlett Crist - guitar
    • Skippy Hutchinson - piano
    • Me - drums
    • The Drums
  • Keith later was a regular on the Dick Clark Production
    Where the Action Is
  • Keith played with Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Monkees, and Ringo Starr
Doug Sahm - 1960
  • Rehearsed at Doug's house... my Dad drove me
  • Performed with Doug on roofs of drive-in movie theater snack bars (Alamo Drive-in is one I remember)
  • James Kelly - bass
  • Several years later Doug Sahm (b. 1941 - d. 1999) had several national hits ("She's About a Mover") as The Sir Douglas Quintette and became a driving force in the popularization of "Tex-Mex" music.
Jazz Concerts
  • San Antonio was "off the beaten path" when it came to traveling jazz bands, large and small. Occasionally we would get lucky... During my high school years the following bands appeared in San Antonio...
    • Stan Kenton Road Show 1958 [Jimmy Campbell - drums]
    • Ray Charles Orchestra
    • Harry James Orchestra [Tony DiNicola - drums]
    • Jack Teagarden[Roy Burns - drums]
Live Music Clubs
  • Keyhole Club
    My father took me to the Keyhole Club, a local integrated club owned by famous jazz/Creole musician, trumpet player Don Albert, where show drummer Trinidad Dumlao was playing for the dancers --
    Albert's years as a San Antonio nightclub owner in the 1940s and 1950s saw the rise in popularity of rhythm and blues and the decline of interest in jazz. There was also increasing racial animosity, which Albert resisted by the successful legal defense of his right to operate an integrated establishment in 1951.
    Jazz on the Road  Don Albert's Musical LIfe by Christopher Wilkinson

    This was a real stretch for my Dad, especially considering I was 15/16. Somehow my Dad knew Don Albert in the Army and probably had organized the visit. While not a strip/burlesque club per sé the dancers got VERY close, as I recall. The music was great and I was intrigued by the aspects of accompanying a performer... singer, musician, dancer... this would have major implications for the direction my career took over the years!! (I never did play a strip club, though!)

  • Hurricane Club
    Dad also took me a couple of times to the Hurricane Club on north San Pedro (at the end of the airport runway) where jazz jam sessions were held on Sunday afternoons. Tenor saxophonist Cullen Offer, the Jr. Hi Band Director at North East, was one of the featured soloists along with fellow tenorist Bill Stringfellow.
  • Eastwood Country Club
    For extreme doses of "Hammond B3 Rhythm & Blues" Eastwood Country Club was the place to go in San Antonio. Located on the "East Side" in the middle of an open field. Eastwood C.C. was not exactly diligent about the age of the people who were allowed in and they didn't seem to care about the flask either. It was a great place to go after hours!! The "house" band was made up of the best jazz and blues players in town and Miss Wiggles was always there!!! Some of the entertainers featured included T-Bone Walker, Junior Parker, The Bobby 'Blue' Bland Review, Hank Ballard and James Brown.
Playing for $$$ 1960-1962
  • Ft. Sam Houston Officer Club Raven Room
    Through my Fathers connections at the Ft. sam Houston Officers Club, I was able to book several nights a month for a quintette: Bob Schulman, Phil Putsche, Tom Bruner, Eileen Schulman, and me. $8.00 a man!!!
  • The Alamo Club 1961-1962
    • or "how to eliminate your social life in your Senior year"
    • I joined the Musicians Union -- Local 23, AFM in 1960 at the insistance of John Pearson, my band director at MacArthur High School
    • Played at the Alamo Club, the private club in the Alamo Hotel with the Pee Wee Lewis Orchestra. We played for dining and dancing 6 nights a week ($65.00 a week!) for 5 months of my Senior year.
    • During football season I had to get a sub on game nights!!
    • The band included sax/clarinet player Pee Wee Lewis, his vocalist wife, "Shorty" Hinijosa, and a bass player. As a result "Shorty" who was an amazing stride piano player insisted that I play simply and together we "kept the beat"!! Working six nights a week meant I didn't do much "partying" I paid for my Gretsch BeBop drums, and a Pontiac station wagon to haul my drums, and a LOT of clothes!!
  • Speaking of clothes... I need to mention Bill Nixon, store manager for the Pincus Clothing Store, an up-scale men's clothing store in downtown San Antonio (Houston Street at Broadway). Bill had been a drummer and had played with some name bands. I bought a LOT of clothes at Pincus and spent a lot of time hanging there talking to him... about drums AND clothes. He was personally a little too hip for San Antonio and the store fashion-wise but had a loyal following. Bill was married to Lillian who was also very hip!! Great influence!
San Antonio Musicians
  • The "Rockers"
    • Augie Meyers - keyboards with Denny Ezba and the Goldens, original member of the Sir Douglas Quintette with Doug Sahm...
      Tribute to Augie and Doug
    • Marty Kagan
    • Harvey Kagan - Bassist with Denny Ezba, Doug Sahm
    • Jack Barber - Doug Sahm, Texas Tornados
    • Gene Kurtz - guitarist/vocalist with Paradons from Alamo Heights HS, Roy Head and the Traits, Edgar Winter
  • The Swing and Jazz Musicians
    • Cullen Offer
    • Bill Stringfellow
    • Johnnie Esquivel
    • Johnnie Rodriguez
    • Paul Elizondo
Summer 1962
  • Hung out at the San Antonio Musicians Union Hall (after Freshman English class at San Antonio College). Got an education about the music business (and Mexican cuisine) from veteran musicians Pete Brewer and Gene McKinney over Huevos Rancheros and Carne Guisada tacos at the Casa Blanca Restaurant on South Houston Street by Santa Rosa Hospital
Gigs (music jobs) in San Antonio 1963-1964
  • St. Anthony Hotel/St. Anthony Club As a hotel The St. Anthony was an elegant old "dowager"... complete with afternoon "high tea" accompanied by a pianist (Joe Cortez, Sr.) and three string players. There were several "oil wealthy" residents in the hotel, some of who took their meals in the Club. The St. Anthony Club (private, of course) consisted of an elegant old bar (wood and leather and ceegars) and an equally elegant Dining Room where I played with a really bad "society" band.

    There were two unbreakable rules:

    1. The musicians had to get out of the club during breaks -- even if invited by the members!!
    2. The band had to continue to play even if there was only ONE member in the club. One evening one of the older male residents (an oil baron, no doubt), who had a habit of ordering a fat slice of prime rib and several slices of white bread and turning it all into prime rib sandwiches, passed out cold face down in his mashed potatoes... we continued to play while everyone waited for him to regain "consciousness"!!

    Good News: Got to hang-out with super pro guitarist Spud Goodall and accordionist Tony Rozance who were "strolling" (walking from table to table and playing AND entertaining) in the bar.

  • San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo
    Don Sarli, conductor
    Don Sarli had the reputation on the rodeo circuit for being able to start the band playing with the clock and to stop the band just before the buzzer better than anyone!!
  • San Antonio Teen Fair of Texas
    June 1994 -- 15 piece Show Orchestra
    Al Sturchio, Conductor Pete Brewer, Contractor
    Played for Bobby Rydell, Leslie Gore, Paul Peterson, Linda Scott, Bobby Vee

    Rolling Stones first public appearance...
    6th June: Joe Freeman Coliseum, 'San Antonio Teen Fair' (1st show)
    6th June: Joe Freeman Coliseum, 'San Antonio Teen Fair' (2nd show)
    7th June: Interviews with two San Antonio radio stations.
    7th June: Joe Freeman Coliseum,'San Antonio Teen Fair' (1st show)
    7th June: Joe Freeman Coliseum,'San Antonio Teen Fair' (2nd show)
    8th June: San Antonio. Press conference

    A newspaper review...
    "ROLLING STONES FLOP IN TEXAS"... Only 3000 of 20,000 available seats were filled when they topped the bill at the TEEN FAIR of TEXAS, in SAN ANTONIO (along with BOBBY VEE, several local bands and circus-type juggling and animal acts).. Those that came weren't too impressed, one young fan quoted as saying " All they've got that our own school groups haven't is hair"

    The show closed early on the 8th of June... I was never paid!!!

  • San Antonio Little Theater -- Musicals
    Eugene Lacritz, former oboist and Frost Brothers store manager at North Star Mall manager was the conductor. This was my "first taste" of doing a "Broadway Show". I played Annie Get Your Gun and My Fair Lady.
  • Fontana Club -- July 1963
    Ran Wilde Trio
    Elsa & Ciro Bianchi Trio
  • Music Mart -- Great "family-owned" music instrument store run by two great instrument repairmen, Don Sarli and Fred Adamchek, I taught private lessons and sold drums. Great guitar "picker" Dow Daggett was a busy teacher, as well.
  • Texas Bandmasters Association Convention -- July 1963
    Gene McKinney from Maxwell Meyers Music Instrument Wholesalers arranged for me to "man" the Deagan Mallett Instruments Booth... Didn't spend much time there as I was hanging around... Ben Strauss and Louis Bellson, too from Rogers Drum Company
    Bought Dynasonic (ser num 1003) Snare Drum from Rogers display.
New Drums -- Rogers Dbl Kick Set -- Mardi Gras Sparkle
  • Ordered through Music Mart and Gene McKinney who worked at Maxwell Meyers Wholesalers
  • 14"x22" Bass Drums (2)
    9"x13" Rack Toms (2)
    16"x16" Floor Tom
    16"x18" Floor Tom
    Pearl covered barrel throne
Hangin' Out in San Antonio
  • Club Holiday -- GREAT music... GREAT fun... lots of nights after leaving St. Anthony... a trio that played/sounded like the Count Basie Band!! "can't get you outta my CAR"
    • Greg Nanus -- Piano with "Organo" attachment - (second from left in the linked picture)
    • Harry Pack -- Fender Bass
    • Jimmy Ramirez -- Drums
  • Jazz Gallery -- used to hang around until they would let me play!
    • Phil Timmons -- Piano, owner
    • Dick Huntley -- Trumpet
    • George Pryor -- Bass (played with Charlie Parker)
    • Ernie Durawa -- Drums (gets a medal for putting up with me!!)
    • Also gotta mention drummer Nick Adams, Jimmy Ford -alto sax player from Maynard Ferguson's band - both of whom could play like the wind..., and Heron B. Smith - be-bop trumpet player.

      Playing with this rhythm section "taught" me what it was like to "swing"

  • Additional great musicians I got to know and play with in San Antonio included:
    • Julio Dominguez
    • Jon Esquivel
    • Gene McKinney
    • Johnny Rodriguez
    • Dale Schultz
    • Tony Esquivel
    • Bobby and Eddie Galvan
Fall 1964 -- Still killin' time!!