Press archive
What was written and broadcast about Harry Pepl: reviews, portraits, interviews and obituaries, with summary and source. The originals are protected by copyright and kept in the archive; we provide them to researchers and the press on request.
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6 March 2009 · Review · DE
Der Standard (Print 6 March 2009, online 5 March 2009, Rubrik Musikrundschau): „Zwio und Trio“ (Neue Jazz-Alben von Werner Pirchner & Harry Pepl, Pablo Milanes & Chucho Valdes u. a.)
“Musikrundschau” (music roundup) with a short review of “Jazzzwio: Live in Concerts” (Universal): according to the text, Pirchner and Pepl are worth remembering, the duo of guitar and vibraphone having supplied model examples of heated chamber music. The DVD is called a must. The date, 13 February 2009, is derived from the article number.
Harry Pepl, a complex guitarist of truly international stature
The creative fury, the intensity achieved there still seems to set the standard today.
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24 February 2009 · Review · DE
KULTUR, Zeitschrift für Kultur und Gesellschaft (Dornbirn): „JazzZwio: Live in Concerts“ (CD-Tipp)
Peter Füssl
CD recommendation by Peter Füssl in KULTUR, a cultural magazine from Vorarlberg, Austria, for the CD/DVD “Live in Concerts” (Universal, 2009). Füssl recalls the legendary JazzZwio of Pepl and Werner Pirchner between 1977 and 1985 and describes the contents: 43 minutes from the 15th Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) in 1981 and excerpts from concerts at the Szene Wien in Vienna (1983) and the Konservatoriumssaal in Innsbruck, Austria (1984), with pieces such as “The Day We Know Paul Desmond is Gone”, “Against The Wind”, “Hosent’Raga” and “Air Love And Vitamins”. He calls the two “absolute individualists” whose interplay adds up to far more than the sum of its parts, notes that so far mainly the Muthspiel brothers (the Austrian jazz musicians Christian and Wolfgang Muthspiel) have kept their memory alive, and hopes the recordings will bring the Jazzzwio wider recognition, above all among younger musicians.
Great moments of brilliantly offbeat music and gnarled humour
the playful wit of these two strong characters, one Viennese and one Tyrolean to the core, still sounds fresh as morning dew more than 25 years after the recordings were made
On the CD/DVD “Live in Concerts” (2009) with Jazzzwio concerts from 1981 to 1984; Pepl was Viennese, Werner Pirchner Tyrolean, and each brought his own regionally coloured humour into the music
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13 February 2009 · Review · DE
Die Presse (Online): „Jazzzwio, Live In Concerts“ (Zwio Infernal)
Samir H. Köck
Short review of the reissue of the 1981 Montreux concert (EmArcy/Universal). The text pays tribute to the duo of guitar and vibraphone as unusual chamber music of the 1980s, whose cascades of sound, the text says, have stayed in the memory of contemporaries.
The superb guitarist Harry Pepl and his perfectly matched partner
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February 2009 · Portrait · DE
Concerto (2/2009, p. 44): „Jazzzwio – ein markanter Name – bis heute“ (CD/DVD-Tipp „Live in Concerts“)
Thomas Hein
Report on the reissue of the Montreux recording together with the video, the preparation of which ran between summer 2007 and autumn 2008. Daniel Pepl describes the home studio in the cellar in Hernstein, the rescue of the tapes and the plan to make his father’s complete work accessible.
While I try to be innovative within a framework, within a style, Harry always tried to cross the set boundaries and then go further.
Daniel Pepl
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13 March 2007 · Radio · DE
Deutschlandfunk, Nachtradio (Playlist): „Milestones - Harry Pepl“ (Klassiker der Jazzgeschichte)
Playlist of a late-night radio programme on 13 March 2007 at 01:05, with “Live in Montreux 81”, the ECM (the renowned European jazz label) album with Pirchner and DeJohnette and Air Mail’s “Light Blues”. It shows Pepl as an entry in a German series on classics of jazz history.
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2007 · Press release · DE
Christian Muthspiel Trio, „Against The Wind“ (Linernotes): „Das Christian Muthspiel Trio spielt Werner Pirchner und Harry Pepl“
Andreas Felber
Liner notes to the album “Against The Wind” (2007) in German, English and French. Felber describes Pirchner and Pepl as “perfectionist characters” who played Europe's festivals as the “Jazz-Zwio” roughly between 1978 and 1985, and reports that the young improvisers of the JazzWerkstatt Wien elevate Pepl to the father figure of the Austrian scene. The basis was a project with Wolfgang Muthspiel for the “Glatt&Verkehrt” festival in 2002. The product page also carries press quotes from Die Weltwoche and the Salzburger Nachrichten.
Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl were perfectionist characters who never did anything by halves.
While the young improvisers of the JazzWerkstatt Wien, after Hans Koller, are now discovering Harry Pepl too and so elevating him to the father figure of the Austrian scene
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6 December 2006 · Programme booklet · DE
Porgy & Bess (programme note, Online): „A Tribute to Harry Pepl“, Mittwoch, 06.12.2006, 20:00 Uhr
initials „CH“
Announcement of the tribute evening with Lorenz Raab and Raphael Preuschl, the Andy Manndorff Trio, the Koehne Quartet and Peter Ponger solo, plus the concert films of Benny Goodman and of the Jazzzwio in Montreux in 1981 and visuals by Rainer Rygalyk. The text pays tribute to Pepl and mentions the three-day series devoted to him at Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club) in 1994; the net proceeds went to the administration of his estate.
But it was Harry Pepl himself who was truly “ace”
When you talk to guitarists, e.g. to Abercrombie or Scofield, there was one constant question: “And how is Harry?”
As an original stylist who left a lasting impression on the international scene through his technical perfection, rhythmic incisiveness, harmonic variety and overflowing musical energy
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22 November 2006 · Report · DE
Der Standard (culture, Printausgabe): „Jazzwohnzimmer Miles Smiles feiert“
felb
Short report on the 15th anniversary of the Viennese jazz club Miles Smiles in the Josefstadt, founded by Wulf Müller. The first concert in autumn 1981 was played by Bill Frisell and Eberhard Weber. Among those who recorded there were Aladár Pege, Jim Pepper and David Friesen, along with Austrian musicians down to Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl.
along with Austrian greats from Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl downwards
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19 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Musikergilde (Online): „Harry Pepl - ein Nachruf“
Peter Paul Skrepek
Detailed obituary by the guitarist Peter Paul Skrepek, who met Pepl in the ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster) in 1974. It describes his training, his ORF studio job, the Jazzzwio, Air Mail and the time with Benny Goodman, names students such as Wolfgang Muthspiel and Peter Havlicek, and gives Monday, 5 December 2005, as the date of death. The former rector of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Otto Kolleritsch, is quoted; readers’ letters supplement the text.
Now that I can play everything I want, I’m no longer allowed to.
Harry Pepl
Divinely gifted guitarist and an exceptional phenomenon
Otto Kolleritsch
an unmistakable musician from Vienna, recognised all over the world
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9 December 2005 · Obituary
organissimo (Jazzforum, Online): „Harry Pepl R.I.P.“
mikeweil (Moderator)
Post on the death of Harry Pepl in an English-language jazz forum. The moderator calls him one of Austria's most original jazz guitarists and recalls the Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner, the ECM (the renowned European jazz label) album with Jack DeJohnette and Air Mail with Mike Richmond.
one of Austria's most original jazz guitarists
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7 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
JazzEcho (Universal Classics, Online): „Ade Harry Pepl!“
Online obituary of Wednesday, 7 December 2005. His most important project, from 1977, was the duo with Werner Pirchner, which brought him international recognition and invitations from all over the world. According to the obituary, Pepl then worked with Dino Saluzzi, Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland, as well as with the Vienna Art Orchestra. As a full professor in Graz from 1984, he set students such as the guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel on their way. It closes with a pointer to the CD “Light Blues” by Air Mail (Emarcy, 2001).
one of the defining instrumentalists of the European jazz scene
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7 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Die Presse (p. 34, arts section): „Er musste spielen“ (Zum Tod des Wiener Jazzgitarristen Harry Pepl)
initials „sam“
Obituary with the headline quotation „Man könnte Klavierspielen müssen“ [“One might have to play the piano”] from the Concerto interview. It describes Real-time Composing, names Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall as well as Schoenberg and Webern as influences, and lists Erich Kleinschuster, the ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster), JazzZwio, Jack DeJohnette, Art Farmer and Michel Portal as fellow musicians.
The virtuoso, who seemed so introverted on the outside, was bubbling away inside when he played.
He searched passionately: for truthfulness, a utopia in which all opposites coincide.
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28 July 2004 · Encyclopaedia · DE
Österreichisches Musiklexikon online: Pepl, Harry
Peter Stachel
Encyclopaedia entry on his life and work: jazz musician, composer and music educator, guitar at the conservatory and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, self-taught in jazz. It covers the collaboration with the Vienna Art Orchestra and the ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster), the Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner, his teaching in Graz and the principle of Real-time and Instant Composing. As awards it lists nominations for the German Record Critics’ Award (German award for outstanding recordings, chosen by a jury of critics) in 1983 and 1988 as well as Lower Austrian state prizes.