Penguin Cafe – Live Review – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
By David Schuster, November 2025
Which came first, the cafe or the orchestra?
It sounds like the start of a corny joke, but in fact it’s a story of enduring admiration and parental love. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra were a British avant-jazz group founded in 1972 by Simon Jeffes. But tonight, in the cosily elegant surroundings of Leeds’ Howard Assembly Room, it is the Penguin Cafe who are playing. Tragically, Simon Jeffes died at the age of only 48, having completed five studio albums. The Penguin Cafe was founded 10 years later by his son, Arthur, who unashamedly describes himself as “a big fan”, in order to showcase his father’s legacy of distinctive music.
Their first piece of the evening, ‘Air à Danser’ epitomises that unique sound. A single note, played metronome-like, on an unfamiliar instrument (in this case a cuatro, a four-string mini acoustic guitar from Latin America), is joined by the minimalist percussion of tapped cymbal and snare drum. Piano, ukulele and electric double bass come in, melding into a driving rhythm, augmented by lush violin and cello. In total, there are seven musicians on stage, but a lot more instruments as most are talented multi-instrumentalists. The maestro himself moves between piano, cuatro, guitar and harmonium. He even plays two tin whistles simultaneously on a couple of the numbers.
“Delights”
This chamber ensemble concept came from a vivid fever dream of Simon Jeffes’, which featured, “A ramshackle old building with noise and light pouring out into the dark. It’s a place you just fundamentally want to go into. There are long tables, everyone sits together, and it’s very cheerfully chaotic. In the back there is always a band playing music that you are sure you’ve heard somewhere but you have no idea where; and that is the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.”
And the chances are you will have heard their music, and not remember the circumstances, as these ear-worm tunes are beloved of film and advertisement makers the world over. I first came to know the Penguin Cafe Orchestra from Road Dreams, a television series, last shown in the early 1990s. The series was created by Elliott Bristow, from Super 8 mm film footage taken by him during an extended stay in the United States in 1968. Melodies such as ‘Perpetuum Mobile’, ‘Music For A Found Harmonium’ and ‘Numbers 1-4’ perfectly complement the on-screen images, capturing the surreal, dreamlike quality of a time spent continually driving from place to place.
All of these tracks feature in tonight’s concert, which is very much a ‘best of’ smorgasbord of delights. There’s also the serendipitously inspired ‘Telephone and Rubber Band’, the darkly ironic ‘The Sound of Someone You Love Who’s Going Away and it Doesn’t Matter’ and the deceptively jolly ‘Beanfields’. I’d always assumed this latter, fast paced and joyous song was intended to be evocative of a country hoe-down, amongst the rural bean fields of the US. However, it transpires that it commemorates Pythagoras’ extraordinary phobia of beans. According to the (almost certainly apocryphal) legend, his fear of beans was so strong that he was killed after he refused to escape through a bean field while being chased by hostile pursuers.
“Fitting tribute”
Sat at the Steinway grand piano, to left of stage, Arthur takes the time to introduce many of the songs, often providing anecdotes or interesting background, like the Pythagoras story. All in all, they play nineteen tracks. That’s no mean feat, as the fast tempo and oft repeating but evolving arpeggios that characterise their music require skill, concentration and indeed stamina to play. Other highlights in the set are ‘Dirt’, Oscar Tango’ and ‘Giles Farnaby’s Dream’, a version of a 16th century harpsichord piece melded with a Venezuelan folk tune, a clear precursor to the current YouTube mash-ups.
The performance finishes with two memorable encores. The first is a poignant solo piano number performed by Jeffes, originally composed for his father’s memorial service. This epitomises the ethos of his father’s music, containing shades of light and dark, fast and slow, with elements of jazz and world music. It’s a very fitting tribute to a talented musician. Arthur then welcomes the other seven members of the group back on stage for the up-beat ‘Swing the Cat’. A few bars in, someone in the band makes a miaowing noise, they all share a chuckle and all is well with the world.
Listen to ‘Music for a Found Harmonium’. Chances are that you’ll catch yourself humming the deceptively simple tune sometime later that day. Such was the genius of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and the continuing joy of the Penguin Cafe.
For more information: penguincafe.com
images: David Schuster
David Schuster describes himself as an “adventurer, collector, musician and writer. Not necessarily in that order.” Growing up west of the Pennine hills of the UK and living his adult life east of them, he’s inclined to think that the Wars of the Roses were a mistake. David loves discovering new bands and musicians and is happiest listening to live music. He has travelled extensively in the UK and is fascinated by the variety, history and landscapes of the thousands of islands that comprise the British Isles. David is always reassured when online shops confirm that he’s not a robot.
