British film music composer Roy Budd entered the world in London on March 14, 1947. A self-taught prodigy, he learned piano solely by ear and later gained command of the Wurlitzer organ. He made his London Coliseum debut at age six, and by twelve he was appearing regularly on television while also entertaining the royal family at the London Palladium. As a teenager Budd assembled a jazz trio alongside bassist Pete Morgan and drummer Chris Karan, leaving school at sixteen to pursue music full time. During an engagement at the London venue the Bull's Head, composer Jack Fishman befriended him and secured a Pye Records contract; the resulting 1965 single “Birth of the Budd” preceded the 1967 album Pick Yourself Up!! This Is Roy Budd. Following 1968’s Roy Budd at Newport, Budd delivered his initial film score for the 1970 release Soldier Blue and, later the same year, produced his widely acclaimed soundtrack for Mike Hodges’ Get Carter. He ranked among Britain’s most active film composers throughout the 1970s, furnishing music for more than two dozen titles such as 1971’s Kidnapped, 1973’s The Stone Killer, and 1978’s The Wild Geese. Budd maintained a parallel solo career, releasing the 1976 collection Everything’s Coming Up Roses: The Musical World of Stephen Sondheim. The demanding schedule ultimately proved unsustainable; shortly after finishing a fresh symphonic accompaniment to the 1925 silent film The Phantom of the Opera, he died suddenly on August 7, 1993, at the age of 46.
