Pianist entertained at Brown
Roger Wolf was a lovable curmudgeon.
He had a quick, dry wit and could tell a great story, his friends said. He was the person who cared about the low man on the totem pole, treating the dishwasher the same as the mayor. And he was one of the best pianists in Denver.
Wolf, who played in the lobby at the Brown Palace Hotel for 27 years until July, died Sept. 20 at 91 years old.
Bruce Barnes, a friend of Wolf and a musical director with the touring production of Broadway’s “Peter Pan,” said Wolf was an encyclopedia of knowledge on American music and musicals, potentially helped by a childhood of watching free films at his grandfather’s movie theaters.
There was a time when Barnes was playing piano on a ship and someone requested a song he didn’t know. The boat docked in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Barnes immediately called Wolf. Without hesitation, Wolf sang the melody and told him the chords underneath. And that wasn’t the only time Wolf answered a desperate call from Barnes.
“Roger Wolf probably has forgotten more songs than most of us will ever know,” joked John Kite, now the resident pianist at the Brown Palace.
Kite and his husband Brad Margritz mused that Wolf liked the piano so much both because of his talent with the instrument but also because it was a way to connect with people.
Wolf had a long professional career that started when he was four years old and still living in his hometown of Ashland, Ore. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he joined Jan Garber & His Orchestra for two years. He ended up living in Phoenix, where he landed a 30-minute television show playing the piano with a guest singer.
In the 1950s, he was scouted to play in an airport lounge in Phoenix. He moved to the Dallas airport to play, meeting his partner Robert Strickler. Wolf was openly gay at a time when that was not easy, Barnes said.
In the 1960s, he transferred to Stapleton Airport. At the time, airports were swanky places where people would dress up and watch planes take off, Barnes, said. Many celebrities would stop in Denver as their planes refueled, leading to Wolf having many stories about John Wayne, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Liz Taylor and the like.
In 1983, Wolf went to play at the Colorado Mine Company, which was where the who’s who would go. Elvis Presley famously flew in his a plane one night to pick up the restaurant’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich for his daughter’s birthday. Wolf would play the piano as people sat on stools right next to him. Both Barnes and Kite had separate stories of other pianists dragging them to the place, saying they just had to see this Wolf guy play. Both were immediately impressed.
He took over the piano bench at the Brown Palace from Barnes in 1988.
At one point, he invited Billy Joel, who was staying at the hotel, to play the piano. The two played a four-hands version of Ain’t Misbehavin for about 20 minutes, sending the lobby into a frenzy.
“If you walked into the room and you had a particular song that was yours that you liked, Roger was known for just breaking into song and playing that song when you walked into the room,” Kite said.