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Harry Pepl * 1945  † 2005

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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  1. 10 December 2024 · Report

    JazzDanmark: „DMA Jazz 2024 in Store VEGA: The winners are here!“

    Report on the presentation of the Danish Music Awards Jazz (Danish jazz awards) 2024 at Store VEGA in Copenhagen. The album “Live at H15 Studio” by the Kresten Osgood Quintet (ILK Music), on which Pepl’s piece “The Halleys Comet - Light Blue Blues” can be heard, was named Jazz Release of the Year. The text itself does not mention Pepl.

  2. 9 June 2024 · Review

    Instagram (@ecm_vinylcollector): „Cracked Mirrors“ (Pepl/Joos/Christensen, ECM 1356)

    Short review of “Cracked Mirrors” on the Instagram account of an ECM (the renowned European jazz label) collector. The album, it says, is the most idiosyncratic of the ECM records of its time and hard to classify; Pepl breaks the material into a thousand pieces.

    If you're Harry Pepl, you bust it into a thousand pieces and shoot it into the ether.

    Cracked Mirrors … is easily the oddest of the bunch, a nearly unclassifiable record.

  3. June 2024 · Other

    Bandcamp (Kresten Osgood): „LIVE AT H15 STUDIO“ (Kresten Osgood Quintet)

    Kresten Osgood Quintet

    Release page of the album “Live At H15 Studio” (ILK Music, June 2024) by the Danish Kresten Osgood Quintet. Track 2 is “The Halleys Comet - Light Blue Blues” by Harry Pepl; the album was named Jazz Release of the Year at the Danish Music Awards Jazz (Danish jazz awards) in 2024.

  4. 12 April 2024 · Report

    European Jazz Masters Of The Past (Blog): „European Jazz Masters Of The Past #3: Herbert Joos“

    Wulf Müller

    Biographical essay on Herbert Joos. Towards the end of the 1980s Joos went into the studio with Harry Pepl and Jon Christensen to record “Cracked Mirrors”, which was released in 1988 to critical acclaim.

    he went into the studio with Austrian guitar master Harry Pepl and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen to record ‘Cracked Mirrors’

  5. 5 February 2024 · Portrait

    European Jazz Masters Of The Past (Blog): „European Jazz Masters Of The Past #2: Harry Pepl“

    Wulf Müller

    Detailed biographical essay by the former producer at PolyGram Austria and co-founder of “Jazz Live”, with photographs from the family collection. Müller first met Pepl in 1984 at an Air Mail concert in Vienna. He describes the Jazzzwio and the time with Benny Goodman, the making of the “Schönberg Improvations”, whose idea Pepl brought to his office, and the solo piano record “Flow” from 1996, recorded without corrections. Some biographical details, such as his birth and the start of his teaching in Graz, differ from the documented sources.

    a very humble, charismatic and private person with a great sense of humour. Someone who was constantly looking for new ideas

    While Harry was building his reputation as one of Europe’s most interesting and unique guitarists

    He swings like hell

    Harry Pepl on Benny Goodman

    Musically, I still find this album exciting, challenging and powerful.

    Harry sat down at the piano, which he never really learned to play, nor practised, and plays, let’s the music flow through him.

    After a few moments I don’t feel time anymore. An emotion of happiness floats through me and the sounds stream on their own

    Harry Pepl

    the most spectacular record of one of the most original guitar players of European Jazz in those years

    Andreas Felber

  6. 23 September 2022 · Encyclopaedia

    ZOTZin Guitar Lessons (Online): „The Most Complete List of Jazz Guitarists“

    Extensive list of jazz guitarists on the website of an American guitar school, published in 2022 and last updated on 29 March 2026. Harry Pepl appears as number 741, described as the godfather of all Austrian jazz guitarists and a legend.

    The godfather of all Austrian jazz guitar players, a legend

  7. 28 January 2022 · Interview

    The San Diego Union-Tribune (Online): „Austrian jazz guitar star Wolfgang Muthspiel jazzed about pending San Diego debut concert“

    George Varga

    Interview with Wolfgang Muthspiel ahead of his first concert in San Diego. Asked about Austrian role models, he names, besides Joe Zawinul, his teacher Harry Pepl: an important guitarist with a sound of his own, a heavy player with a great sense of time, to him an international figure with his own voice.

    There was also an important guitar player by the name of Harry Pepl, who was my teacher. He had a unique sound and was a heavy player, with a great sense of time.

    Wolfgang Muthspiel

    I think he was an international figure and definitely had his own voice.

    Wolfgang Muthspiel