Roger Williams

Renowned for his elaborate glittering keyboard runs, flamboyant virtuosity, and understated easy-listening style, pianist Roger Williams stood among the foremost pop instrumentalists of the late 1950s and the 1960s. Much like other artists working in that vein, he blended pop, jazz, and classical elements into a seamless, soothing sound. Between 1955 and 1972 he placed thirty-eight albums and twenty-two singles on the charts, among them the number-one hit “Autumn Leaves.”

Born Louis Weertz, Williams began piano studies in childhood yet gravitated toward boxing while still in high school. Repeated injuries, including several broken noses, eventually steered him back to music, and he enrolled as a piano major at Drake University. There he started experimenting with fusions of jazz, classical, and pop. An administrator overheard him playing “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” in a practice room and promptly expelled him.

After leaving Drake, Williams enlisted in the Navy and earned a B.A. in engineering. Once discharged, he returned to Drake briefly before moving on to Juilliard, where he studied with jazz pianists Lennie Tristano and Teddy Wilson.

His first significant break arrived when he was booked to accompany a vocalist on Arthur Godfrey & Talent Scouts. The singer failed to appear, so Williams performed alone. Dave Kapp, head of Kapp Records, heard the broadcast, signed the pianist, and suggested the professional name Roger Williams, taken from the founder of Rhode Island.

A handful of singles preceded his breakthrough with the arpeggio-laden “Autumn Leaves” in 1955, which reached number one and launched a string of twenty-two charting singles that continued until 1969. Two additional Top Ten hits followed: “Near You” in 1958 and “Born Free” in 1966. Album success proved equally consistent, producing thirty-eight chart entries from 1956 through 1972, including the Top Ten releases Songs of the Fabulous Fifties (1957), Till (1958), Maria (1962), and Born Free (1966).

Although his audience diminished in the early 1970s, Williams kept recording into the 1980s and remained one of the most celebrated pianists of the postwar period. He became the first pianist awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and performed for every U.S. president from Harry Truman through Bill Clinton. Roger Williams died in Los Angeles on October 8, 2011, at age 87, from complications of pancreatic cancer.