Grammy-Award winning composer, arranger, and conductor Paul Buckmaster passed away on Tuesday, Nov. 7 at the age of 71 in Los Angeles.
Born in London, Paul Buckmaster was a highly innovative and influential orchestral arranger who made his mark in the 1970s on various hit songs including David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (1969), Elton John’s “Your Song” (1970) and “Tiny Dancer” (1971) and the Rolling Stones’s “Moonlight Mile” (1971).
Buckmaster went on to arrange and conduct for countless iconic artists including Miles Davis, Harry Nilsson, Carly Simon and in recent years Brandi Carlile, Goo Goo Dolls, Idina Menzel, Ben Folds, Kelly Clarkson and Chris Cornell’s final recording “The Promise”.
Buckmaster also worked in film, most notably playing cello with David Bowie and his band for the original soundtrack to the science fiction film The Man Who Fell To Earth and composing the original score for Terry Gilliam’s science fiction film 12 Monkeys (Universal, 1995) starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt.
In 2002, he won a Grammy for Best Arranger Accompanying Vocal, for his string orchestra arrangement on the band Train’s hit single “Drops of Jupiter”. He also arranged the strings for Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift’s hit single “Back to December”.
Further details and funeral arrangement are to be announced.
