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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28 October 2025 · Obituary · DE
Salzburger Nachrichten (p. 9, culture): „Er gab im Jazz die Richtung vor: Jack DeJohnette ist tot“
Florian Oberhummer
Obituary of Jack DeJohnette tracing his work with Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett and the label ECM (the renowned European jazz label). For Austria, Oberhummer points to the ECM recordings with Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl and to DeJohnette’s appearances at the Saalfelden jazz festival since 1980. The text appeared online on sn.at on 27 October 2025.
In Austria the drummer leaves his mark not only on ECM albums alongside Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl
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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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8 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (no. 286, p. 39, arts section): „Schnelle Finger“ (Jazzgitarrist Harry Pepl gestorben)
initials „WWS.“
Short obituary with its own dates: it wrongly gives 1944 as the year of birth, and names 1977 for the appointment to the teaching staff of the Jazz Institute in Graz and 1984 for the professorship. From 1977 to 1984 Pepl formed the Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner; Benny Goodman, Dave Holland, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer, Dave Liebman and Jack DeJohnette are also named.
with his rhythmic incisiveness, his surprising chord progressions and his metallic, sitar-like sound, one of the most stimulating stylists on both the acoustic and the electric instrument
In the seventies there was hardly a faster jazz guitarist in Europe than the Austrian Harry Pepl.
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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.
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7 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Tiroler Tageszeitung (p. 16, Magazin): „Jazzgitarrist Harry Pepl ist tot“
Short report based on the APA: an internationally known guitarist who played with Benny Goodman and Dave Holland and formed the Pirchner-Pepl-JazzZwio with Werner Pirchner.
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7 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Süddeutsche Zeitung (p. 17, arts section): „Verstummte Saiten“ (Zum Tod des Wiener Jazzgitarristen Harry Pepl)
Ralf Dombrowski
Obituary from Munich (Germany): the Graz Academy of Music appointed Pepl in 1977, the same year in which the Zwio with Werner Pirchner began to attract attention beyond Austria; years with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Dino Saluzzi, Charlie Mariano and Lee Konitz followed. Dombrowski describes a style with broad arcs of tension, unexpected harmonic progressions and clear, at times metallic sounds.
Students such as Wolfgang Muthspiel still count him among the most important driving forces in recent European jazz history.
In dialogue the two took the small chamber-jazz form to a previously unimagined communicative intensity.
He shaped a playing style which, with expansive arcs of tension, unexpected harmonic progressions and clear, at times metallic sounds, expanded the expressive range of his instrument melodically and rhythmically.
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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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6 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Kleine Zeitung (p. 57, culture): „Grenzgänger“ (Rubrik „Aktuell“)
Short report based on the APA describing Pepl as a musical border-crosser who worked with the Benny Goodman Quintet, Dave Holland and Dino Saluzzi, performed in the Pirchner-Pepl-JazzZwio and developed methods such as instant composing.
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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”
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6 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Wiener Zeitung (p. 14, culture): „Jazzgitarrist Harry Pepl tot“
Short obituary based on the APA with his date of birth, partners such as the Benny Goodman Quintet, Dave Holland, Dino Saluzzi and Michel Portal, the Pirchner-Pepl-JazzZwio and his teaching at the Graz Academy of Music from 1977 to 1995, finally as full professor.
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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
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5 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
APA-Basisdienst (APA0621, culture): „Österreichischer Jazzgitarrist Harry Pepl 60-jährig gestorben“ (Spielte mit vielen internationalen Größen)
APA (initials whl/cm)
News agency report from the day of his death, Monday, 5 December 2005, 5.31 pm, on which many newspapers relied the next day. It mentions his guitar studies at the Vienna Academy of Music, his teaching in Graz from 1977 and his professorship from 1984 to 1995, the Pirchner-Pepl-JazzZwio, real-time composing and partners such as the Benny Goodman Quintet, Dave Holland, Dino Saluzzi and Michel Portal; the rector Otto Kolleritsch honours Pepl as an “exceptional figure”.
Pepl was regarded as a musical border-crosser whose music impressed with its vitality, density and emotion.
gifted guitarist
Otto Kolleritsch