Simon Jeffes and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Series: Echo Location: Soundings for New Music
From: John Diliberto
Length: 00:03:30
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
AN INTERVIEW WITH SIMON JEFFES AT THE PENGUIN CAF? Ambient chamber music pioneers get the re-issue treatment He scored the strings for the Sid Vicious rendition of "My Way" and hung out with Brian Eno, but Simon Jeffes is best known for his idiosyncratic and influential chamber group, The Penguin Caf? Orchestra. Simon Jeffes died in 1997 but his CDs are all being reissued. We revisit an interview with this pioneering composer.
Broadcast History
aired on WXPN, Philadelphia July 23, 2008
Transcript
Music Sid Vicious "My Way"
:10
WHEN MALCOLM MACLAREN DECIDED THAT SEX PISTOLS BASSIST SID VICIOUS SHOULD COVER THE FRANK SINATRA HIT, "MY WAY," HE GOT SIMON JEFFES TO WRITE THE STRING ARRANGEMENTS.
:18
SJ: ....his singing was grotesque, but at the same time there was something moving about it. And it wasn't a send up when I did the arrangement. I actually got quite touched by it. Because
although it sounded totally moronic in a way, it was full of
kind of anger and despair and yet life, there was really life
in the piece.
MUSIC BITE
:11
THIS MIGHT BE SIMON JEFFES' MOST INFAMOUS WORK, BUT IT'S NOT THE MUSIC FOR WHICH HE'S BEST KNOWN. THAT WOULD BE THE QUIRKY CHAMBER MUSIC GROUP, THE PENGUIN CAF? ORCHESTRA.
music
:26
THE PENGUIN CAF? ORCHESTRA WAS AN AD HOC ASSEMBLAGE OF MUSICIANS HEADED UP BY JEFFES FROM 1973 UNTIL HIS UNTIMELY DEATH 24 YEARS LATER. THEY...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
Incue: [sonar sound] + This is an Echo Location: Soundings for New Music.
Outcue: I?m John Diliberto and this has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music
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