Bill Potts (musician)

William Orie "Bill" Potts (April 3, 1928, Arlington, Virginia – February 15, 2005, Plantation, Florida) was an American jazz pianist and arranger.

Potts played Hawaiian guitar as a child and accordion in his teens. At age 15, he won an accordion competition with a performance of "Twilight Time". He picked up piano in high school after hearing Count Basie on the radio. While serving in the Army from 1949 to 1955 he transcribed charts for Army bands; he also composed and arranged for Joe Timer and Willis Conover's ensemble, THE Orchestra, which broadcast on Voice of America radio. He wrote four of the songs on THE Orchestra's 1954 Brunswick Records LP, and recorded some of their live shows, which occasionally featured guest appearances from Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

By 1956 Potts was leading a house band at Olivia Davis' Patio Lounge in Washington, D.C.. Lester Young booked an engagement there, and Potts convinced Young to record with him on two of the evenings. These recordings were later released as the Lester Young in Washington, D.C. sessions.

In 1957, Potts worked extensively as a composer, arranger, and performer for Freddy Merkle's Jazz Under the Dome album (which also featured Earl and Rob Swope). Soon after this he suffered a crushed vertebra in a car crash and ended up in a body cast for three months. During this time, he began working on charts and arrangements for an album consisting of jazz reinterpretations of many songs from George Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess. He had fully recovered by 1959, when he released a session under his own name entitled The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess. This album, recorded for Blue Note Records, featured a nineteen-piece band whose members included Al Cohn, Harry Edison, Art Farmer, Bill Evans, Bob Brookmeyer, Marky Markowitz, Zoot Sims, Charlie Shavers, Earl Swope, and Phil Woods. Down Beat magazine rated the album five out of five stars upon its release.

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