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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. 12 December 2005 · Obituary · DE

    NÖN Niederösterreichische Nachrichten (p. 38, Triestingtal): „Tiefe Trauer um Harry“

    Obituary in the Triesting valley edition on the day of the funeral: Pepl shaped Austrian jazz nationally and internationally like hardly anyone else and created a jazz idiom that can be called European. It mentions Benny Goodman, Dave Holland, Dino Saluzzi, Dave Liebman and Mino Cinelu, instant and real-time composing, and the lying in state, requiem and burial in Hernstein; the paper wrongly gives his age as 61.

    He shaped and influenced Austrian jazz, nationally and internationally, like hardly anyone else.

    Harry Pepl shaped a jazz idiom which, in its uncompromising direction and its phrasing in waves over a steady pulse, can be called European.

    The only thing essential for the synthesis of the temporal and the timeless to succeed is the fulfilled moment!

    On Real-time Composing, quoted in the obituary in the NÖN, the regional weekly of Lower Austria, December 2005

    Harry Pepl

  2. 7 December 2005 · Obituary · DE

    Salzburger Nachrichten (p. 14, culture): „Gestorben: Harry Pepl“ (Rubrik „Gestorben“)

    Obituary in the “Gestorben” (deaths) column: Pepl had long been regarded as one of the most independent and creative guitarists on the European jazz scene. It mentions the Zwio with Werner Pirchner, projects with Benny Goodman, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Dave Liebman, and real-time composing in the tradition of the Second Viennese School.

    he had long been regarded as one of the most independent and creative guitarists on the European jazz scene

    In the “Zwio” with the composer and vibraphonist Werner Pirchner he disregarded musical conventions from the 1970s on and played originally and slyly with clichés of homeland.

  3. 6 December 2005 · Obituary · DE

    Kleine Zeitung (p. 55, culture): „Auch die 2. Hälfte vom ‚Jazzzwio‘ ist nicht mehr“

    Michael Tschida

    Obituary honouring Pepl as one of the jazz world’s “truly great”: from his first spurs in the ORF Big Band to appearances with Benny Goodman, Dino Saluzzi and Jack DeJohnette and the Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner, his “brother in spirit”. Tschida describes how Pepl revolutionised guitar technique with real-time composing and recommends listening to “Pepl/Pirchner live in Montreux '81”.

    With the Vienna-born musician the jazz world loses one of the truly great

    We were both equally crazy and liked trying out funny things.

    On the Jazzzwio, his duo with the vibraphonist Werner Pirchner, known for its wit and humour on stage

    Harry Pepl

    I am often very cheerful and then very sad again. You can probably hear that in my playing too

    A description of himself, quoted in the obituary in the Kleine Zeitung, a daily from Graz, December 2005

    Harry Pepl

    The comic in jazz was never more serious.

    On the humour of the Jazzzwio, Pepl’s duo with Werner Pirchner

    a truly great one, who began as a teenager with dance arrangements and at his peak revolutionised guitar technique with “real time composing”

  4. 6 December 2005 · Obituary · DE

    Kurier (p. 31, culture): „Harry Pepl gestorben“ (Rubrik „Überblick“)

    Short obituary: after studying at the Vienna Academy of Music, Pepl quickly played his way into the first league of European guitarists. The Kurier sees his greatest period in the 1980s with the Pirchner-Pepl-JazzZwio, which because of its full sound bore the honorary title “jazz orchestra with two men”.

    quickly played his way up into the first league of European guitarists

  5. 6 December 2005 · Obituary · DE

    OÖ Nachrichten (p. 22, culture): „Jazzer Harry Pepl gestorben“ (Meldung unter „Harry bleibt vorne“)

    Short obituary that counts Pepl among the best guitarists of the present day and recalls Le Monde’s phrase “giant of improvisation”. It stresses that despite his international reputation Pepl remained loyal to regional jazz festivals in Upper Austria such as Raab; it wrongly gives a Vienna hospital as the place of death.

    He was one of the best guitarists of our time and was often called a “giant of improvisation” (in Le Monde, among others)

    Despite his international reputation he always remained committed and loyal to regional jazz festivals in Upper Austria (such as Raab).