Simon Jeffes

Simon Jeffes ( born February 19, 1949 in Crawley, West Sussex, † December 10, 1997 in Taunton, Somerset ) was a British composer and classical guitarist. He is especially known for the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, founded by him.

Curriculum vitae

Simon Jeffes spent after his birth some years of his childhood in Canada, before he and his family returned to England, he attended a school in Devon. In the late sixties he studied with Julian Byzantine and Gilbert Biberian classical guitar at the Royal Academy of Music, where he occasionally played with avant-garde ensembles such as the Omega Player. This music but it was a little too factual. Therefore, he turned to the rock and worked with Rupert Hine on film music as well as Hines first two solo albums Pick Up A Bone ( 1970) and Unfinished Picture (1971). There are also some recordings from this period, suggesting that Simon Jeffes perhaps wanted to be a reggae singer. Already at that time he composed, but his view of music in 1972 influenced decisively when he traveled with the Trans-Siberian Railway to Japan and there became acquainted with ethnic and minimalist music. In particular, he was impressed by African music: "This tape just blew my mind, man! " (Simon Jeffes on a cassette of African music that was lent to him by a friend).

After his return from Japan, he was on holiday in southern France. There, he had the idea for the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He reports:

" In 1972 I was in the south of France. I had eaten some bad fish and what in Consequence rather ill. As I lay in bed I had a strange recurring vision, there, before me, was a concrete building like a hotel or council block. I could see into the rooms, each nominal real what Continually scanned by at electronic eye. In the rooms were people, everyone of them preoccupied. In one room a person what looking into a mirror and in another a couple were making love but lovelessly, in a third a composer what listening to music through earphones. Around him there were banks of electronic equipment. But all was silence. Like everyone in his place he had been Neutralized, made gray and anonymous. The scene which for me one of ordered desolation. It was as if I were looking into a place Which had no heart. 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 did to have a nice orderly life, you kill off what's most important. Whereas in the Penguin Cafe your unconscious can just be. It's acceptable there, and that's how everybody is. There is an acceptance there did Has to do with living the present with no fear in ourselves. "

" In 1972, I was in southern France. I had eaten bad fish and was consequently quite ill. As I lay in bed, I had a strange and recurring vision; in front of me I saw a concrete building that looked like a hotel or a hostel. I could see into the rooms; everyone was constantly scanned by an electronic eye. In the rooms were people, and all were kinda busy. In one room a person looked in a mirror, in another room, a pair of hilarious but without love, and a third was a composer who was listening to music with headphones. This composer was surrounded by nothing but art. But all was quiet, as if each had been made gray and anonymous at this location. The whole scene had something for me from minor despair. It seemed to me that I would see a heartless place. The next day I felt better, I was sunning myself on the beach, when suddenly a poem popped into my head. It began with the words "I am the owner of the Penguin Café Orchestra, and I 'll tell you random things ," and acted in the course of what valuable things for things like chance, spontaneity, surprises, unexpected things and irrationality in our lives are. And if you suppress these things to lead a nice orderly life, you kill the from what is most important. In contrast, the Penguin Cafe is a place where the unconscious can be easy. It is there acceptable and ebendas everyone is. There is acceptance that there has to do with it, to live without fear in the present. "

While the rest of the 1970s Jeffes worked as a freelance composer and arranger, where he worked with a colorful mishmash of different musicians, including Caravan, Rod Argent, Yvonne Elliman and the 101'ers. Parallel Penguin Cafe Orchestra, the developed: 1973 played the " Penguin Cafe Quartet" in London.