Composer | Simon Jeffes

Born in 1949 in Crawley, Sussex, 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.