Roger Williams (pianist)

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Roger Williams
Background information
Birth name	Louis Weertz
Born	October 1, 1924, Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Genre(s)	Pop standards
Instrument(s)	Piano
Years active	1955-present
Label(s)	Kapp
Website	Roger Williams homepage

Roger Williams (born October 1, 1924) is one of the most popular pianists in American popular music history. As of 2004, he has released 116 albums.

He was born Louis Weertz, the son of a Lutheran minister (Rev. Frederick J. Weertz) and a music teacher (Dorothea Bang Weertz), in Omaha, Nebraska, but before his first birthday moved to Des Moines, Iowa. He first played the piano at age three, but in high school became interested in boxing, mainly at his father's insistence, and only returned to music after breaking his nose several times and sustaining several other injuries. He majored in piano at Drake University in Des Moines, but was expelled for playing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in the practice room. Weertz entered the United States Navy, served in World War II, and while still in the Navy received a bachelor's degree from Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) in 1950. Afterwards he managed to re-enroll at Drake, where he earned his master's degree, and later moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School of Music. At Juilliard he studied jazz piano under Lennie Tristano and Teddy Wilson.

One night he was scheduled to play as an accompanist for a Juilliard student who was scheduled to sing on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts." The singer failed to appear, and Louis Weertz went on as a piano soloist, winning the night's contest. He was heard by David Kapp, founder of Kapp Records, and Kapp was so impressed that he signed the pianist, changing his name to Roger Williams after the founder of Rhode Island. In addition to the Godfrey program, he also won a talent contest on Dennis James' program, "Chance of a Lifetime."^{[citation needed]}

In 1955 he recorded the only piano instrumental to reach #1 on Billboard magazine's popular music charts: "Autumn Leaves."^{[citation needed]} While many other records of this song have been made since it was composed in 1945 by the composer Joseph Kosma, Roger Williams' version is easily the best known and most played. In 1966 he had another Top Ten hit with the song Born Free from the motion picture soundtrack of the same name.

His first wife, Joy Dunsmoor, bore him three daughters. After divorcing her he married again, in 1985, to Louise DiCarlo.

He was the first pianist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On October 29, 2004 he was inducted into the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame.

Williams resides in Encino, California and has more recently bought the rights to his Kapp masters from the Universal Music Group.