Roy Budd

For a self-taught jazz pianist, composer Roy Budd knew exactly what the hell he was doing with movie scores. One need go no further than this soundtrack for the 1980 British historical WWII film The Sea Wolves (starring Gregory Peck, Trevor Howard, David Niven and Roger Moore). Budd built an actual score around Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto, weaving his killer taut themes in and through it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. So, as Addinsell's glorious bit of Anglo-Euro classical bluster and twee flits through the film's panoramas, Budd's actual score hits its cues in the taut and tense moments. That Budd could not only compose but conduct with such sensitivity is a modern marvel. Budd was one of the most sophisticated composers for the movies in British history, and this soundtrack (with an added bit of fun at the very end) is just one reason why. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide