Simon Jeffes *II 19 1949 — The Life You Give

Simon Jeffes, born Simon Harry Piers Jeffes, on 19 February 1949, is the classically trained guitarist, composer and arranger who formed, and was the primary performer of, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He was the composer of the ballet Still Life at the Penguin Cafe, of the much-recorded piece Music For A Found Harmonium, and other music recorded by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

Born in Crawley, Sussex, England, the son of a research chemist, Jeffes spent his childhood years in Canada before returning to school in England and studying classical guitar at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Already dabbling in experimental music and playing with avant-garde ensembles like the Omega Players, Jeffes found new musical inspiration in Japanese and African music and, during an illness in France, conceived the idea of a wildly eclectic music ensemble, The Penguin Café Orchestra, whose first album was released in 1976 on Brian Eno’s record label. “I am the proprietor of the Penguin Café,” Jeffes wrote of a visionary experience: “I will tell you things at random.”

During the 1970s, Jeffes was also working as an arranger and musical advisor, notably through Malcolm McLaren for Sid Vicious, The Sex Pistols and Adam Ant, moving between Punk and New Romantic. Ahead of his time, he was experimenting in minimalism, African and other ‘World Music,’ and earning good money with catchy soundtracks for major TV advertising campaigns.

“At the helm of the Penguin Café Orchestra,” his obituary remarked, “he transcended musical genres and broadened the listening perspectives of many people.” With such albums as Music for a Found Harmonium and Sign of Life, the Orchestra developed a cult following without hitting the mainstream until the 1988 triumph of ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café, on which he worked closely with Sir David Bintley. Simon Jeffes died in 1997 at 48 of an inoperable brain tumor, and the Penguin Café Orchestra disbanded.

Source: Sarasota Ballet

In 1972, Simon Jeffes was on holiday in the South of France when he contracted food poisoning from fish. During a high fever, he experienced a series of hallucinations, including a dystopian vision of the future. He recalled the incident in 1988.

“The next day, when I felt better, I was on the beach sunbathing and suddenly a poem popped into my head. It started out, ‘I am the proprietor of the Penguin Cafe, I will tell you things at random,’ and it went on about how the quality of randomness, spontaneity, surprise, unexpectedness and irrationality in our lives is a very precious thing. And if you suppress that to have a nice orderly life, you kill off what’s most important. Whereas in the Penguin Cafe, your unconscious can just be.”

And so the idea for the Penguin Cafe Orchestra was born. This strangest of group concepts defined a mental space, which Jeffes could fill with musical ideas. While leading the instrumental ensemble, with its shifting cast of over 30 musicians, he produced some of the most singular music of the 70s and 80s.

Source: Louder Sound