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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22 December 2019 · Report · IT
Tracce di Jazz (Blog): „L’AVVOCATO DEL DIAVOLO…..“
milton56
Reply on the same Italian jazz blog to the review of “Volver” published on Wednesday, 18 December 2019. Taking the part of the “devil’s advocate”, as the title has it, the author milton56 sets against his colleague’s enthusiasm the story of how the album came about, as he had heard it about a month earlier from the Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava himself. He explicitly retells it from memory: a second-hand recollection, not a studio log. According to this account, the 1986 session was slow to get going because the Argentine bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi and the American drummer Bruce Ditmas had very different ideas about accompaniment and volume, and Rava mediated. In a deadlocked silence Harry Pepl is said to have struck a chord at random, just to break the silence. The producer Manfred Eicher, founder of the renowned European jazz label ECM, came into the studio full of enthusiasm and saw in it the starting point from which the band could at last develop something; Pepl himself could not even vaguely remember the chord. Rava, according to this recollection, described the work on the record as laborious. The author concludes that the album nevertheless found its way to listeners.
The guitarist Pepl strikes a chord at random, just to break the icy silence.
From a story told by Enrico Rava about the stalled recording session for “Volver” in 1986, explicitly retold from memory by the blogger milton56; a second-hand recollection
As if on purpose, the Austrian cannot even vaguely remember what had come out of his instrument by chance……
Punchline of the same story: the producer Manfred Eicher had seen in Pepl’s chance chord the starting point for the recording; a second-hand recollection
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18 December 2019 · Review · IT
Tracce di Jazz (Blog): „Ritornare a ….”Volver”“
andbar
Album review on the Italian jazz blog Tracce di Jazz (“From jazz-fans to jazz-fans”). The author, andbar, came across a second-hand copy of “Volver”, the album recorded in 1986 by the Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava and the Argentine bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi for the renowned European jazz label ECM, with Harry Pepl (guitar), Furio Di Castri (double bass) and Bruce Ditmas (drums). He finds the record somewhat underrated and worth rediscovering. For him the opening track, “Le but du souffle”, begins with a quiet soliloquy on electric guitar; he calls “Tempos de ausencias” a distillation of Argentine melody only lightly flecked by Pepl’s guitar. In Pepl’s composition “Ballantine for Valentine” he hears a free outburst in the spirit of Ornette Coleman, the pioneer of free jazz, which breaks up the calm prevailing mood of the record and widens its horizons. On Sunday, 22 December 2019 a second author on the blog replied with Rava’s own recollection of the recording session.
“Tempos de ausencias”, a distillation of Argentine melody only lightly flecked by Pepl’s guitar
andbar on the Italian jazz blog Tracce di Jazz about “Tempos de ausencias” on “Volver”, the ECM album recorded in 1986 by Enrico Rava and Dino Saluzzi with Pepl on guitar
“Ballantine for Valentine”, an Ornette-style free outburst that breaks up the calm moods prevailing on the record
andbar on Pepl’s composition “Ballantine for Valentine”, his only piece on “Volver”; “ornettiano” alludes to Ornette Coleman, the pioneer of free jazz
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18 December 2017 · Review
Guitar Moderne (Online): „Harry Pepl: The One That Almost Got Away“
guitar moderne
Short piece in the American online magazine for adventurous guitarists. The author discovered Pepl in 1986 on the ECM (the renowned European jazz label) album “Volver” by Enrico Rava and Dino Saluzzi: his sound recalled Metheny, but with a harder attack and a freer sensibility. He recommends “Cracked Mirrors”, which still sounds fresh today.
His chorused sound and fluidity were reminiscent of Metheny, but his attack was harder and his sensibility was decidedly more “out.”
Check out “Cracked Mirror” to hear how his playing in 1988 sounds fresh even today.
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2012 · Review
AllMusic (US-Musikdatenbank mit Kritiken, gegründet 1991): AllMusic Review: „Volver“
Scott Yanow
Capsule review in AllMusic, the US music database with reviews founded in 1991, of the ECM album “Volver” by the quintet of Enrico Rava and Dino Saluzzi, recorded in October 1986 at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, Germany, with Harry Pepl on guitar, Furio Di Castri on bass and Bruce Ditmas on drums. The US jazz critic Scott Yanow finds that Rava’s introverted yet inwardly passionate playing matches Saluzzi’s modern tangos well; the result is fairly accessible yet still exploratory, “An intriguing set”. AllMusic gives it 3 out of 5 stars. The review is undated and has been online since 2012 at the latest; the track list gives Pepl’s “Ballantine for Valentine” as track 5.
Rava’s introverted yet inwardly passionate playing matches well with Saluzzi’s modern tangos, and the results are fairly accessible yet still exploratory.
On the ECM album “Volver” (recorded in 1986) by the quintet of Enrico Rava and Dino Saluzzi, on which Harry Pepl plays guitar and is represented by his piece “Ballantine for Valentine”