Bill Potts

Bill Potts: 'How Insensitive'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 5, 2014

One of the rarest albums by pianist-arranger Bill Potts is How Insensitive (Decca). It was recorded by Brasilia Nueve (New Brazil)—a studio band assembled in New York in May 1967. The album seems to have been intended as an Easy Listening entry, but like all things by Potts, the album shows exceptional arranging and smarts. So who was in this one-shot Brasilia Nueve band? Oh, just the cream of the New York studio scene in need of a few bucks ...
read more

Porgy and Bess: Bill Potts

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 6, 2014

Between 1956 and 1964, at least 16 jazz interpretations of Porgy & Bess were recorded and released. Why the frenzy? Part of the reason was the opera's global popularity by 1955. In 1952, Robert Breen directed and co-produced with Blevins Davis a revival of the George Gershwin opera in New York that eventually toured 29 countries in four years. The opera eventually wound up being performed in Leningrad and Moscow in December 1955—the first postwar U.S.-Soviet cultural exchange. An account ...
read more

Bill Potts: Pianist, Arranger, Educator and Producer

Source: All About Jazz
March 4, 2005

Born: April 3, 1928 in Arlington, VA Died: February 15, 2005 in Plantation, FL

By Todd S. Jenkins

Pianist, composer and arranger Bill Potts died of cardiac arrest in Plantation, Florida, on February 15, 2005. He was 75 years old.

He was born William Orie Potts on April 3, 1928, in Arlington, Virginia. Potts was largely self-taught as a musician, beginning on Hawaiian guitar as a child. At fifteen he won a talent contest for his accordion skills. ...
read more