Roy Budd

Roy Frederick Budd (14 March 1947 – 7 August 1993), was a British jazz musician and composer, known for his film scores.

Born in South Norwood, Surrey, Budd became interested in music from an early age and had built up a vast musical repertoire by the age of eight. On leaving school at the age of sixteen, he embarked on a professional career as a jazz pianist and formed The Roy Budd Trio, with bassist Pete Morgan and drummer Chris Karan.

He composed his first film score in 1970 and became a prolific composer of films during the seventies and eighties writing the scores for over fifty films. Get Carter and The Wild Geese are among some of his best known scores.

Early life
Budd was two when he began to play the piano, initially by ear and then by copying various melodies he heard by listening to the radio. When he was six, two Austrian music experts visited him at home and after various tests, found that he was pitch perfect. In 1953, he made his public concert debut at the London Coliseum. By the age of eight, he could play the Wurlitzer organ and four years later he was appearing on television at The London Palladium.

As a teenager Budd attended Portland Secondary Modern School on Sandown Road in South Norwood where he periodically played to entertain pupils and staff.

In 1957, he featured on the Carroll Levis show on radio. He sang some Jerry Lee Lewis songs when he was eleven years old with his brother Peter and a friend at the Sutton Granada under the name "The Blue Devils." He formed the "Roy Budd Trio" with bassist Peter McGurk and his cousin drummer Trevor Tomkins before leaving school and embarking on a career as a jazz pianist. Roy later reformed the trio with Tony Archer or Jeff Clyne on bass and Chris Karan on drums. Clyne was later replaced by Pete Morgan, creating a line-up that was maintained until his death.

His first recording was "Birth of the Budd," a single recording. His first recorded LP was Pick Yourself Up on Pye (NSPL 18177) issued in 1967, with Peter McGurk on bass with the orchestra and Dave Holland on bass on the four tracks featuring the trio without orchestra. Chris Karan was on drums and Tony Hatch and Johnny Harris arranged the orchestral tracks. In his sleeve notes, Hatch refers to seeing Budd on the David Frost show on television in February 1967 playing his own composition I've Never Been In Love Before, which is on the album.

Around that same time, he also recorded an album named simply Roy Budd featuring Ian Carr on trumpet; Dick Morrissey on tenor sax; Trevor Tomkins on drums; and with fellow pianist Harry South doing the arrangements.

Budd won a UK jazz poll in the category of best pianist for five years running and simultaneously became the resident pianist at the Bull's Head, Barnes, London, where he met up with songwriter Jack Fishman. Fishman secured him a three-year recording contract with MCA and although the company dropped him after only a year, Fishman convinced the managing director that Budd would become an internationally renowned writer of film music.

Film career
In 1967 he provided the theme tune for the Granada TV series Mr Rose, starring William Mervyn. In 1970, Budd made his film score début for director Ralph Nelson. Nelson was looking for an English composer for his controversial film, American western Soldier Blue. Budd recorded a tape of his own interpretation of music by composers Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin and Lalo Schifrin. Soldier Blue was filmed mainly in Mexico and was based, to a large degree, on a battle which took place at Sand Creek in 1864, when hundreds of Cheyenne Indians were brutally killed. Despite being intended as an 'anti-violence' Western, the film was heavily criticised for its violence. Apart from the main theme, which he based on Buffy Sainte-Marie's hit song of the same title, he composed all the music required for the film and conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which Nelson commissioned at the start of the film's production.

In 1971 he composed the music for the film Get Carter. Written and directed by Mike Hodges, Get Carter starred Michael Caine, John Osborne and Ian Hendry. The film's budget reputedly allowed only £450 for the score, but he overcame this restriction by using only three musicians, including himself playing electric piano and harpsichord simultaneously. He later worked for the producer Euan Lloyd on films, including Paper Tiger, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves and Who Dares Wins. He also provided the soundtrack to the 1971 film version of Kidnapped.

Budd was asked by Ralph Nelson to compose the music to Flight of the Doves, starring Ron Moody, Jack Wild and Stanley Holloway. Budd worked with Dana who sang the film's theme. In 1973 Budd recorded the score to Fear Is the Key, which was based on the Alistair MacLean novel. It was directed by Michael Tuchner and starred Suzy Kendall, Barry Newman, John Vernon, Ben Kingsley and Ray McAnally. Whilst recording the score, Budd was influenced by Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes and Kenny Baker, thus giving the music a jazz-sounding theme. Scott played the saxophone for the car chase sequence, which took place alongside the Mississippi River. According to Tuchner, "the sequence needed to be recorded in a continuous ten-minute plus take, whilst hitting split-second action cues so as to blend perfectly with the chase sound effects. Budd and his orchestra achieved this in just two takes".

Later life
Budd's film work in the eighties included the scores for Mama Dracula (1980) and Field of Honor (1986). Returning to his first love, he played regular jazz shows at Duke's Bar in Marylebone, London, partnering with veteran harmonica player, Larry Adler. He also arranged for and accompanied such artists as Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, and Charles Aznavour.

Budd recorded two CDs of film music with the London Symphony Orchestra. The first contained a mixture of big hits such as "Star Wars Trilogy", "Superman", "E.T.", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Star Trek: the Full Suite", "Alien", "Dr. Who", "Sinbad" and "Eye of the Tiger". This was recorded at the end of May and beginning of June of 1984 at the CTS Studio, Wembley. In 1985, the London Symphony Orchestra made a full-length recording of the music from The Wild Geese, again at CTS Studio. Budd's other solo albums include Live at Newport, Everything is Coming Up Roses and Have a Jazzy Christmas.

Budd's last work was a new symphonic score for the 1925 silent film The Phantom of the Opera. The score was over 80 minutes long.

Personal life
In 1972, as his career was peaking, he married the actress and singer Caterina Valente, but they divorced seven years later. He had a son from the relationship, named Alexander. He remarried in the 1980s to Sylvia and they remained together until his death. Budd died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 46 on 7 August 1993. His brother, Peter C. Budd, lives and works as a musician in Chicago.

Selected filmography

 * Soldier Blue (1970)
 * Get Carter (1971)
 * Zeppelin (1971)
 * The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971)
 * Kidnapped (1971)
 * Fear Is the Key (1972)
 * Steptoe and Son (1972)
 * The Carey Treatment (1972)
 * Man at the Top (1973)
 * Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973)
 * The Stone Killer (1973)
 * The Black Windmill (1974)
 * The Internecine Project (1974)
 * The Marseille Contract (1974)
 * Diamonds (1975)
 * Paper Tiger (1975)
 * Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
 * The Wild Geese (1978)
 * The Sea Wolves (1980)
 * Mama Dracula (1980)
 * Who Dares Wins (1982)