Chronology

Life and work year by year. Every entry is documented; we welcome additions and corrections.

1940s

10 September 1945

Born in Vienna

Vienna

Harald “Harry” Pepl was born in Vienna on 10 September 1945 and grew up in Floridsdorf, Vienna’s 21st district north of the Danube. Vienna remained occupied by the four Allies until 1955; in his childhood his father whistled him the jazz standards played on the occupation radio. Through the American stations, the Rot-Weiß-Rot network and the forces’ radio Blue Danube Network, young Viennese heard jazz and swing on a large scale for the first time. The Frankfurter Allgemeine mistakenly gives 1944.

Life

1950s

1952

First instrument: the accordion

Vienna

At about the age of seven (the earlier website says eight), Pepl was given an accordion and played Viennese songs, Schubert, Mozart, opera arias and the popular songs of the day. Attending an accordion competition gave him the „Kick zum Improvisieren“ [“the kick to improvise”]; playing from sheet music soon lost its appeal.

Education

1960s

1960

The first guitar

Vienna

Pepl took up the guitar, at the age of 15 according to Kohler; in 1988 the Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, put it at 13. He learned mainly by listening to records, including those of Tal Farlow and Johnny Smith.

Education
1960

Youth band with Blacky Brandstätter, Franz Handler and Karl Komarek

Vienna

Around 1960/61 the young Pepl plays guitar in a Viennese youth band with Blacky Brandstätter, Franz Handler and Karl Komarek, who later played with the Hubbubs; a photo from the estate shows the four with accordion, drums and guitar (names according to the family).

Life
1960s

Wes Montgomery becomes a role model

Romania

On a holiday in Romania, a bar-band guitarist showed him chords and recommended Wes Montgomery. Pepl learned Montgomery's solos by listening and transcribing, not through lessons.

Education
1963

Guitar studies with Karl Scheit

Vienna

Pepl studies classical guitar in Karl Scheit's class at the Vienna music academy; at the entrance examination he plays Mozart's “Turkish March” with a plectrum. The year 1963 is given in the obituary of the Kunstuniversität Graz (University of Music and Performing Arts Graz).

Education
1964

First record release: “Skinny Minny / Olymp”

Vienna

With the dance and beat band The Austrian Evergreens, the single “Skinny Minny / Olymp” is released on the Rex Roval label, recorded live on the stage of the Albert-Sever-Saal in Vienna-Ottakring, Austria, the later Star Club Wien (Vienna youth club). On the A-side Hannes Patek sings his signature tune from the Star Club; for the B-side Pepl composes, in next to no time, the instrumental “Olymp”, a hard-rocking piece in the style of the Shadows’ “Apache”. It is the earliest composition by Pepl documented on record.

Recordings
1966

The Austrian Evergreens

Europe

In the second half of the 1960s Pepl was the full-time guitarist of the dance and beat combo The Austrian Evergreens, whom the Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, calls “Austrian Aces”. The band played hits, Beatles numbers and bossa nova and toured Europe; Pepl arranged for them.

Ensembles
1 January 1967

Member of the union for the arts and liberal professions

Vienna

On 1 January 1967, aged 21, Pepl joins the Austrian Trade Union Federation, union for the arts and liberal professions (Gewerkschaft Kunst und freie Berufe), musicians' section; the card gives his profession as „Musiker“ [“musician”].

Life

1970s

1970

Studio musician in Vienna

Vienna

Pepl left the cover band during a tour to become a studio musician and briefly studied at the jazz department of the Vienna Conservatory. There he met Peter Ponger; through Ernst Kugler he found his way into the ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) studio.

Life
1971

ORF Big Band and studio work

Vienna

In the 1970s Pepl played in the ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster) under Ernst Kugler, Karel Krautgartner and Richard Österreicher and worked as a studio musician for, among others, Wilfried, Reinhold Bilgeri and Peter Alexander, the most popular German-language entertainer of the post-war era. In 1974 he was, after Peter Paul Skrepek, the band's first guitarist.

Ensembles
1974

Conception M

Vienna

Pepl played in Albert Mair's group Conception M with Christof Lauer, Ack van Rooyen and Aladar Pege. No recording was released.

Ensembles
1974

Television recording with Arik Brauer

In 1974 Pepl can be seen in an ORF television recording (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster) as a Heuriger guitarist (musician in a Viennese wine tavern) alongside the painter and singer Arik Brauer, from about the fourth minute. ORF III (the ORF's culture and information channel) showed the rare recording again; the programme's title and first broadcast date are still being researched.

Media
27 March 1974

Pepl as guitarist at the Musikverein: “Missa Criolla” with the Arnold Schoenberg Chor

Vienna

In the Brahms Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Arnold Schoenberg Chor under Erwin Ortner performs Ariel Ramírez's “Missa Criolla” on Wednesday, 27 March 1974, as its Austrian premiere. Pepl plays guitar, alongside Fritz Ozmec (drums), Ewald Zimmermann (double bass) and Harald Neuwirth (harpsichord).

Concerts
1975

The Jazzzwio begins with Werner Pirchner

Vienna

Pepl led the trio Hip Jargon and brought in the vibraphonist Werner Pirchner. At the first duo rehearsal, with “Stella by Starlight”, the Jazzzwio began, which lasted until 1985. The sources date the beginning between 1975 and 1978; Kohler's date is used here.

Ensembles
1975 to 1979

Guest on Walter Richard Langer’s ORF TV series “Bourbon Street”

Vienna

In the ORF TV series “Bourbon Street” (35 episodes, 1975 to 1979), Walter Richard Langer presents jazz styles and musicians and invites guests into the studio for live performances, among them Barney Kessel, Albert Mangelsdorff, Art Farmer, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Harry Pepl. Pepl appears several times, also with the Jazzzwio.

Media
1975

Harald Neuwirth Konsort and duo with Lee Konitz

Vienna

In the Konsort of the pianist Harald Neuwirth, Pepl played a duo with Lee Konitz at one concert, a formative moment for him; Hans Koller, the Austrian saxophonist and pioneer of European jazz, was listening.

Ensembles
February 1975

Mumelter's Concertodrom

Innsbruck

The Concertodrom, invented and founded by the violinist Martin Mumelter, with Max Engel, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, Harry Pepl, Kurt Neuhauser (organ, piano) and the soprano Doris Linser, gives its premiere at the Großer Stadtsaal in Innsbruck, Austria, and then tours the British Isles, including the Edinburgh Festival. Pepl joined at Werner Pirchner’s suggestion.

Ensembles
23 June 1975

Mini festival at the HTL Saalfelden

Saalfelden

On Monday, 23 June 1975, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, Harry Pepl, Wayne Darling and Fritz Ozmec, the Austrian jazz drummer, play at a first mini festival at the HTL (technical college) in Saalfelden (Salzburg, Austria), three years before the first “3 Tage Jazz” from which the Jazzfestival Saalfelden grew.

Concerts
25 September 1975

Hip Jargon with Werner Pirchner at the Vienna Funkhaus

Vienna

On Thursday, 25 September 1975, Hip Jargon plays with Pepl (guitar), Wayne Darling (double bass) and Fritz Ozmec (drums) in the Great Broadcasting Hall of the Funkhaus in Vienna, Austria; the guest is Werner Pirchner on vibraphone. The recording from the ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) radio archive is broadcast on 5 June 2020 in Ö1’s (the ORF's cultural radio channel) “In Concert”, which calls Hip Jargon “the nucleus of the famous ‘Jazz-Zwio’”.

Concerts
1976

Teaching assignment at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG)

Graz

The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz entrusts Pepl with leading the jazz guitar training class. Heckel, the information sheet and the Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, give 1976 as the start; Kohler speaks of an offer in 1976 and acceptance in 1977.

Teaching
1976

ORF Big Band: “Leave Me”

Vienna

The ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster) under Richard Österreicher recorded the LP “Leave Me” with Pepl as a soloist, featuring his piece “Salt and Pepl”.

Recordings
1977

Premiere of Pirchner’s “Präludium und Fiasko”

Innsbruck, Tyrol

At the Kongresshaus Innsbruck (Tyrol, Austria), the Eisenbahnermusik Innsbruck under Florian Pedarnig gives the premiere of Werner Pirchner’s “Präludium und Fiasko” for wind band, vibraphone and guitar (PWV 9), with Pirchner on vibraphone and Pepl on guitar. An excerpt can be heard on the soundtrack of the Pirchner film “D.U.D.A!” (2014).

Concerts
August 1977

Farewell to the ORF Big Band, move to Graz

Graz

Pepl ended his contract with the ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster), wanting to play only jazz from then on. On 10 August 1977 the Burgenländische Freiheit reported that he was to move to Graz, “where he is to take up a teaching post in the jazz department of the university of music”; the guitarist Olaf Weitzer was being discussed as his successor in the band. Pepl had last been heard with his jazz-rock group “Hedgehog” at the three-day festival in Kohfidisch. Guido Jeszenszky began studying with him in Graz that year.

Life
7 October 1977

With Marianne Mendt in Deutschlandsberg

Deutschlandsberg

On Friday, 7 October 1977, Pepl plays in the festival hall of the Arbeiterkammer (Chamber of Labour, the statutory body representing employees) in Deutschlandsberg (Styria, Austria) in a concert by the Austrian singer Marianne Mendt, with Harald Neuwirth (piano), Wayne Darling (bass) and Erich Bachträgl (drums). The organiser is the Kulturkreis Deutschlandsberg, a local cultural association; the archive of the steirischer herbst (festival of contemporary art in Styria) lists the evening and names the guitarist by his baptismal name, “Harald Pepl”.

Concerts
1978

Trio Infernal and journey to New York

Vienna, New York

Around the end of the 1970s there was the Trio Infernal, with Adelhard Roidinger and Erich Bachträgl. With Peter Ponger, Pepl travelled to New York by ship, played sessions and met Marc Johnson.

Ensembles
2 February 1979

Jazzzwio at the Jazzforum Mödling

Mödling

On Friday, 2 February 1979, the Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner (vibraphone) and Harry Pepl (guitar) played for the Jazzforum Mödling, a jazz association founded in 1978 in Mödling, Lower Austria, Austria; according to the association's chronology the venue was “St. Michael”. The photographer Erich Petzwinkler captured the evening, and his picture of Pepl with the Gibson Les Paul is in the archive (more photos in the picture archive of the Jazzforum Mödling). Twelve days later, on Wednesday, 14 February 1979, Pepl and Pirchner opened for the Dutch guitarist Harry Sacksioni in Vienna.

Concerts
May 1979

Concert with Friedrich Gulda in Graz

Graz

For early May 1979 the Burgenländische Freiheit announced “a concert of superlatives” at the Münzgrabenheim in Graz: Friedrich Gulda, the Viennese pianist and composer, on piano with the two former ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster) musicians Wayne Darling (bass) and Harry Pepl (guitar).

Concerts
July 1979

Recording of “Austria Drei”

Munich

The quartet Austria Drei, with Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, Adelhard Roidinger and Todd Canedy, recorded the album at FUN Studio in Munich; it was released on EGO in 1980. Herbert Joos painted the cover.

Recordings
7 September 1979

Guitar duo with Voja Brković at the Debrecen Jazz Days

Debrecen, Hungary

At the 8th Debrecen Jazz Days (Debreceni dzsessznapok) in Hungary, according to the local paper the country’s largest representative jazz festival, Pepl plays at midnight on Friday, 7 September 1979, in the Bartók Hall in a duo with the Yugoslav guitarist Voja Brković, that is, in the night to Saturday; afterwards the pianist Gusztáv Csík gives a solo concert. The Debrecen daily “Hajdú-Bihari Napló” announces the “Austrian-Yugoslav guitar duo” twice that day. In the festival review of Sunday, 16 September 1979, Gábor Turi ranks the duo among the top group of the five-day festival with 7,000 visitors and praises its virtuoso technique and perfect interplay.

Concerts
26 October 1979

ORF tapes of the Jazzzwio

Vienna

The ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) archive in Vienna holds three tapes of the Jazzzwio dated 26 October 1979, with “Gegenwind”, “Mahavischnigg” and “Big Paul”, presumably from the programme “Bourbon Street”.

Recordings
16 November 1979 to 24 November 1979

Tour with the Vienna Art Orchestra

Austria

Pepl played on the tour for the debut album “Tango from Obango” (Steyr, Linz, Dornbirn, Feldkirch, Vienna, Graz). The album was recorded on 22 and 23 November 1979.

Concerts
1 December 1979 to 2 December 1979

Recording of “Gegenwind”

Bisamberg near Vienna

The Jazzzwio recorded the album “Gegenwind” in a small studio on the Bisamberg near Vienna. ECM (the renowned European jazz label) and ENJA (Munich jazz label) turned it down; Mood Records (Stuttgart-based jazz and rock label) took over the tape.

Recordings

1980s

1980

Move to Hernstein

Hernstein

Around 1980 Pepl moved to Hernstein in Lower Austria, where he lived until his death and later ran his home studio. His piece “Hernstein 144” carries the address.

Life
1980s

Guitar duo with Christy Doran in Switzerland

Switzerland

In the early 1980s, according to the family, Pepl plays in Switzerland in a guitar duo with the Lucerne guitarist Christy Doran, then the leading figure of the jazz rock band OM. Doran lists Pepl among his duo partners in his biography, and Pepl himself later recalled playing with him in Switzerland. Dates and venues have not come down to us. An unreleased tape recording of the duo, about 98 minutes long, is in the sound archive for signed-in users.

Concerts
23 March 1980 to 25 March 1980

Concerts with the Vienna Art Orchestra

Vienna, Zurich, Basel

With the Vienna Art Orchestra, the Viennese jazz big band led by Mathias Rüegg, Pepl played in Vienna (Jazzspring), Zurich and Basel; in June 1980 the “Concerto Piccolo” tour of Austria followed.

Concerts
29 April 1980

“Clown und Poet” on Bavarian Television

Munich

On Tuesday, 29 April 1980, Bavarian Television (BR: Bayerischer Rundfunk, Bavaria's public broadcaster) aired the first episode of its new series “Heut' abend”, which later became the ARD talk show hosted by Joachim Fuchsberger: in “Clown und Poet” the clown Oleg Popov and the actor Klaus Maria Brandauer meet in front of a studio audience; Brandauer recites texts by Henry Miller, Peter Brook, William Shakespeare, Hermann Hesse, Ernst Jandl and Peter Altenberg. According to the closing credits, the music is played by a studio band with Olaf Kübler, Robert (Bob) Degen, Günter Lenz, Joe Nay and Harry Pepl; Pepl plays his old Gibson Les Paul. ARD alpha later broadcast the recording in its “retro” series.

Media
29 May 1980 to 30 May 1980

Recording of Runo Ericksson's Omnibus

Lindau, Switzerland

The album was recorded at Phonag Studio in Lindau (Switzerland) with Runo Ericksson, Charlie Mariano, Pepl, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, Bruno Brandenberger and Marc Hellmann. It was released in 1981 on Four Leave Records.

Recordings
14 June 1980 to 15 June 1980

Pirchner/Pepl Duo at the Festival for Contemporary Music in Neuwied

Neuwied

On Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June 1980, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Harry Pepl play as the Pirchner/Pepl Duo, the Jazzzwio, at the 3rd Festival for Contemporary Music in the Engers sports hall in Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). The same poster lists Albert Mangelsdorff, the Gary Burton Quartet, OM & Manfred Schoof, the Pat Metheny Group, Egberto Gismonti, the Contact Trio, the duo Fryderyk/Gurtu, the Ch. Spendel Quartet and Piirpauke. In 1982 Pirchner and Pepl returned to Neuwied with Jack DeJohnette.

Concerts
September 1980

Jack DeJohnette sits in spontaneously at Saalfelden

Saalfelden

At the Jazzfestival Saalfelden (major jazz festival in the Salzburg region of Austria), Jack DeJohnette stepped onto the stage during a performance by the Jazzzwio, Pepl's duo with the Austrian composer and vibraphonist Werner Pirchner, and played along spontaneously. A tape of the session with more than an hour of music survives in the estate; Pepl noted the year 1980 on it. Among other things, it features Pirchner's “Hos'nt Raga” and an intro with DeJohnette at the piano.

Concerts
7 November 1980 to 8 November 1980

Concerts with Benny Goodman in Berlin

Berlin

Pepl played two concerts at the Berlin Philharmonie with Benny Goodman, Don Haas, Peter Witte and Charly Antolini. Goodman announced a guitar solo without warning, and from it “Harry Pepl's Blues” arose spontaneously. According to a letter of 15 November 1980 from Goodman's manager Kurt A. Müller, Goodman “really got going” during Pepl's solo at the start of the second concert and was “full of praise” afterwards. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, in whose honour the concerts were held according to family tradition, attended the first concert. The recording was released in 1993 on “B.G. World-Wide” and in 1996 as “Berlin 1980”.

Concerts
24 November 1980 to 28 November 1980

The String Summit in Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden, Mainz

At the New Jazz Meeting Baden-Baden under Joachim-Ernst Berendt, Pepl played in the duo “Hargang” with Wolfgang Dauner. The album “One World in Eight” was released in 1981 on MPS. Berendt announced the final concert in Mainz on Friday, 28 November 1980, with „noch nie gehörte Klänge“ [“never-before-heard sounds”]; the SWR lists the meeting in its chronology as the “String Meeting”.

Recordings
1981

Rome: soundtrack “Fantasma d'Amore”

Rome

According to Kohler, Pepl recorded jazz versions of the main theme for Dino Risi's film in Rome with Benny Goodman, Peter Witte and Charly Antolini (music by Riz Ortolani).

Recordings
March 1981

Recording of “The Loss”

Bisamberg near Vienna

The quintet with Leszek Zadlo, Pepl, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, Wayne Darling and Brüning van Alten recorded at Schmetterling Sound Studios on the Bisamberg. The album was released in 1982 on Bellaphon; the band soon fell out.

Recordings
12 July 1981

Jazzzwio at the Montreux Jazz Festival

Montreux

Pepl was called to the telephone in Graz during a lesson and agreed to appear at the guitar festival in Montreux, but as a duo with Pirchner. The concert on Sunday 12 July 1981 is regarded as the first big step in Pepl's international career. The live recording was released as an LP on WEA. Billboard, the US music trade magazine, listed Pepl on Saturday, 27 June 1981, in the programme of this guitar day alongside James “Blood” Ulmer, Biréli Lagrène, Lee Ritenour and Larry Coryell.

Concerts
4 September 1981

Benny Goodman at the Tivoli, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

For a television show at the Jazzhus Slukefter, Pepl played with Goodman, Jimmy Maxwell, Svend Asmussen, Don Haas, Peter Witte and Charly Antolini. Goodman later sent him a photo with the dedication “for Harry, a great guitarist”. In 2006 the Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club) dated the concert film to 1980.

Concerts
17 October 1981

Donaueschingen with the Vienna Art Orchestra

Donaueschingen

At the Donaueschingen Music Days, one of the oldest festivals of contemporary music (since 1921), in Germany, Pepl plays on Saturday, 17 October 1981, at 8.30 pm in the Donauhalle in the SWF Jazz Session “Jonny tritt ab, keine Jazz-Oper für Stimmen und Instrumente in zwei Teilen” (Jonny Exits, no jazz opera for voices and instruments in two parts) by Mathias Rüegg, with the Vienna Art Orchestra, the Viennese jazz big band, the Stadtkapelle Radolfzell, a town band, the singers Karin Krog, Lauren Newton and Maggie Nicols and John Surman (saxophone). The producer was Joachim-Ernst Berendt, jazz editor of Südwestfunk (SWF), the public broadcaster for south-western Germany, who founded the New Jazz Meeting in Baden-Baden in 1966. It is the last traceable collaboration with the Vienna Art Orchestra. Kohler dates the evening to 1982, the festival archive to 1981.

Concerts
November 1981

Recording of “Schattseite”

Ludwigsburg

Adelhard Roidinger's album was recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg under Manfred Eicher (ECM 1221, 1982) and is named after the novel by Franz Innerhofer. Pepl plays guitar.

Recordings
6 November 1981

Jazzfest Berlin

Berlin

On Friday, 6 November 1981, at 11 pm the Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, plays at the Jazz Fest Berlin at the Metropol in Berlin, Germany, on a double bill with Defunkt; this is how the Berliner Festspiele announced it in the Hamburg music magazine Sounds. The first piece is called “Berlin '81, die Erste”. The set list of eight pieces, among them “Gegenwind”, “Homesick” and “White Smoke”, with their durations (around 85 minutes in all) is preserved by the Rockpalast archive, a private fan archive on Rockpalast, the music programme of WDR television (West German Broadcasting); it lists the evening among the Rockpalast recordings at the Metropol from 3 to 8 November 1981, with U2, John Scofield and James Blood Ulmer. A radio recording of the concert survives in the estate; whether the television recording was broadcast and survives is open.

Concerts
1 April 1982

Austria Drei in Graz

Graz

Concert at the Studentenhaus Münzgraben with Michael Di Pasqua on drums, after which the trail of the band, as far as it can be reconstructed, goes cold.

Concerts
May 1982

Jam session with Larry Coryell

Graz

Before his concert at the Münzl in Graz, the American guitarist Larry Coryell visited the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, showed the students some new tricks and played a jam session with Harry Pepl, who, according to the Steirerkrone, greatly impressed him.

Teaching
June 1982

ECM recording with Jack DeJohnette

Ludwigsburg

On a Sunday afternoon in June 1982 the Jazzzwio recorded for ECM with Jack DeJohnette at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg; the producer was Manfred Eicher. Dave Holland had actually been scheduled but dropped out.

Recordings
1 October 1982

Ars Electronica: “Jazz und Elektronik” (Jazz and Electronics)

Linz

At the Ars Electronica evening “Jazz und Elektronik” in the Great Hall of the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Pepl plays in the Ars Electronica Workshop Ensemble with François Jeanneau, Wolfgang Dauner, Jasper van't Hof, Adelhard Roidinger and Daniel Humair; Alphonse Mouzon's quartet also performs. The programme calls Pepl “one of the leading jazz guitarists in Europe”.

Concerts
October 1982

Jazzzwio at the Student Centre in Zagreb

Zagreb, Croatia

In October 1982 the Jazzzwio plays in the music salon of the Student Centre in Zagreb (Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia). In February 1983 the critic Miro Križič writes in the Slovenian music magazine “Glasbena mladina” that the combination of the prepared vibraphone, from which Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, drew “incredible sounds full of vibrating sensitivity”, with the modern guitar created “a wealth of musical ideas, rhythms and brilliant improvisations” (translated from the Slovenian). The day of the concert is not recorded.

Concerts
2 October 1982

German Jazz Festival Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main

Pepl and Pirchner played in the Großer Saal of the Alte Oper, including titles such as “Wiener essen Frankfurter”.

Concerts
27 October 1982

Jazzzwio at ŠKUC in Ljubljana

Ljubljana, Slovenia

For Wednesday, 27 October 1982, at 7 pm, ŠKUC, the Student Cultural Centre in the old town of Ljubljana (Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia), announces a concert by the Jazzzwio, organised together with the Austrian Cultural Institute in Zagreb: Pepl on electric and acoustic guitar, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, on tenor vibraphone and marimba. The Slovenian daily “Delo” prints the announcement on the day before and on the day of the concert.

Concerts
30 October 1982

Steirische Herbst Band at the ISCM World Music Days

Graz

At the World Music Days of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), held in Graz, Austria, in 1982 as part of the steirischer herbst festival, Pepl plays in the Steirische Herbst Band under Erich Kleinschuster, the Austrian jazz trombonist: on Saturday, 30 October 1982, at 10 pm in the Saal Steiermark of the Graz Congress, in the same slot as the Vienna Art Orchestra under Mathias Rüegg. The band includes, among others, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, Christian Muthspiel, Hans Koller, the Austrian saxophonist and pioneer of European jazz, Eje Thelin, Leszek Zadlo, Adelhard Roidinger, Karlheinz Miklin, Harald Neuwirth, Wayne Darling and Erich Bachträgl. Until 4 November the band appears four more times in the exhibition hall of the Congress; whether Pepl played every time is not documented individually.

Concerts
22 November 1982

The Jazzzwio opens the jazz series at the Kasper-Keller in Linz

Linz

On Monday, 22 November 1982, a jazz series that would last 35 years begins at the Kasper-Keller beneath the Café Jentschke in Linz (Upper Austria, Austria): for the first evening the landlord Hans Peter Kasper books the “Zwio” of Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Harry Pepl.

Concerts
December 1982

Bratislava Jazz Days

Bratislava

At the PKO Hall in Bratislava, Pepl played the standard “St. Thomas” with the formation “The International Conclave”; the live recording was released in 1983 on the double LP “Bratislava Jazz Days 1982”.

Concerts
1983

Air Mail finds its line-up

Vienna

After rehearsals with the bassist Jean-Paul Celea, the line-up of Pepl, Wolfgang Puschnig, Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger emerged in autumn 1983. The band took its name from the bassist Richmond, who was flown in.

Ensembles
1983

At the 1st Musikfest Bleiburg

Bleiburg

In 1983 Harry Pepl plays at the 1st Musikfest Bleiburg (Carinthia, Austria). 35 years later, on 15 November 2018, his music returns to Bleiburg with the Lonely Single Swinger Band at the Brauhaus Breznik.

Concerts
1 April 1983

ECM album with “Air, Love & Vitamins”

Munich

The album “Werner Pirchner / Harry Pepl / Jack DeJohnette” (ECM 1237, renowned European jazz label) was released and contains “Air, Love and Vitamines”, Pepl's best-known piece. Kohler and mica (Austria's music information centre) name the German Record Critics' Award (German award for outstanding recordings, chosen by a jury of critics), the Österreichisches Musiklexikon a nomination.

Recordings
30 May 1983

“Daniel Humair and Friends” at the Théâtre de l'Atelier, Paris

Paris, France

On Monday, 30 May 1983, Pepl plays guitar in the concert “Daniel Humair and Friends” at the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Paris, France, which is recorded by Radio France (France's public radio broadcaster). According to the catalogue note of the INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel, the French archive for radio and television), the other musicians are Daniel Humair (drums), Eric Le Lann (trumpet), Harry Sokal (alto saxophone), Joachim Kühn (piano), Werner Pirchner (vibraphone, percussion) and the bassists Mike Richmond and Dave Holland. The programme includes Pepl's “Good-bye, Baby Post”. It is the first concert evidence of his playing with Holland; two days later comes the International Jazz Session at the Musée d'art moderne.

Concerts
1 June 1983 to 2 June 1983

International Jazz Session at the Musée d'art moderne, Paris

Paris, France

On Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 June 1983 the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (the City of Paris's museum of modern and contemporary art) stages an “International Jazz Session” in two parts: the first features Joachim Kühn, the German pianist, Mike Richmond, the American bassist, Bennie Wallace and Daniel Humair, the Swiss drummer; the second features Harry Pepl, Harry Sokal, the Austrian saxophonist, and Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist.

Concerts
3 June 1983

ORF “Ohne Maulkorb”

Vienna

On Friday, 3 June 1983, the ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) youth magazine “Ohne Maulkorb” (Szene Wien), presented by Peter Resetarits, devoted a feature of its own to the Jazzzwio, with interviews with Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Harry Pepl. The duo played “Better Times In Sight”, “Good-bye, Baby Post” and “Air, Love & Vitamins”, along with an excerpt from the film “Der Untergang des Alpenlandes” featuring Pirchner. The description in the ORF archive notes that with the Jazzzwio the two had made “a name for themselves far beyond Austria's borders”. An excerpt was released in 2009 on the DVD “Live In Concerts”.

Media
1984

Full professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG)

Graz

Pepl is appointed full professor of jazz guitar at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz; Die Steirische gives 1982. His students included Wolfgang Muthspiel, Peter Havlicek, Guido Jeszenszky and Martin Siewert.

Teaching
22 January 1984

Pirchner, Pepl, Di Pasqua concert in Salzburg

Salzburg

The poster “Jazz im Theater” announces Werner Pirchner, Harry Pepl and Michael Di Pasqua on Sunday 22 January 1984, 8 pm, at the Elisabethbühne Salzburg; the archive of Salzburg’s Jazzit lists the evening in its concert history, with Pirchner on vibraphone and marimba.

Concerts
25 March 1984

Jazzzwio in the Conservatory Hall, Innsbruck

Innsbruck

The Innsbruck live recording of Sunday 25 March 1984 forms the second part of the release “Live In Concerts”.

Concerts
10 June 1984

Michel Portal Plus at the Angoulême jazz festival

Angoulême, France

On Sunday, 10 June 1984 (Whit Sunday), Pepl plays at the jazz festival in Angoulême, France, in Michel Portal’s large line-up Michel Portal Plus, with Michel Portal, Harry Sokal, Joachim Kühn, Claude Barthélemy (electric bass), Jean-Paul Celea and Jean-François Jenny-Clark (double bass), Daniel Humair and Mino Cinelu. Radio France, the French public radio, records the concert; the programme includes a title “Pepl's theme”, and France Musique broadcasts “Mazurka” and “Angola” from it on 8 July 1985. On Whit Monday Pepl plays with Air Mail at the moers festival.

Concerts
11 June 1984

Air Mail in Moers

Moers, Germany

On Whit Monday, 11 June 1984, Air Mail plays at the Moers Festival (renowned festival for jazz and improvised music in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) in the ice rink hall, with the trumpeter Karl “Bumi” Fian as fifth man. The concert brings the band its breakthrough; in 1985 the debut “Prayer for Peace” is released on Moers Music. In 1986 the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck, a local paper in Tyrol, called the evening a “much-noticed international debut”.

Concerts
21 June 1984

NDR jazz workshop with the Family of Percussion in Hamburg

Hamburg

On Thursday, 21 June 1984, Pepl, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Steve Swallow play as guests of the Family of Percussion led by the Swiss drummer Peter Giger at NDR jazz workshop no. 191 in Studio 10 of the broadcasting house in Hamburg, Germany (NDR: Norddeutscher Rundfunk, public broadcaster for northern Germany). The programme includes Pepl's „Das Auge des Maulwurfs“ [“The Mole's Eye”]; the producer is Michael Naura.

Concerts
23 September 1984

Portal Unit at the Schlachthof in Graz

Graz

Pepl's first reconstructible concert with Michel Portal, George Lewis, Joachim Kühn, Jean-François Jenny-Clark and Daniel Humair. The concert on Sunday, 23 September 1984, in the former slaughterhouse was a guest performance of the steirischer herbst (festival of contemporary art in Styria, Austria) in the “Falso Loco” series; the festival archive names the ensemble “Michel Portal Unit featuring Harry Pepl”. Festivals in France followed.

Concerts
October 1984

Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw

Warsaw

According to the family, Pepl plays at the international festival Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw, Poland, in October 1984 (25 to 28 October 1984); the festival poster later hung in his home studio. The Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, in 1988 and his information sheet also list Warsaw among the places he performed; line-up and programme are not yet documented; probably with Wolfgang Puschnig, possibly also Harry Sokal (the family's assumption, not documented). According to the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck, a local paper in Tyrol, in 1986, a festival in Warsaw was part of Air Mail's international debut, along with Moers and Cologne; the paper gives no year.

Concerts
27 October 1984

Tenor Madness at the Festival de Jazz de Paris

Paris, France

On Saturday, 27 October 1984, Pepl plays at the Festival de Jazz de Paris, France, in Tenor Madness, a group with three tenor saxophonists: Daniel Humair (drums), Jean-François Jenny-Clark (double bass), Joachim Kühn (piano) and François Jeanneau, Harry Sokal and Larry Schneider (tenor saxophone). Radio France, the French public radio, records the concert; the Compagnie Lubat and the quartet of Jean-Louis Chautemps play the same evening.

Concerts
2 February 1985 to 4 February 1985

Recording of “Prayer for Peace”

Ludwigsburg

Air Mail recorded the debut album at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg (Moers Music 02032, producer Burkhard Hennen) with Pepl, Puschnig, Richmond and Reisinger.

Recordings
March 1985

Austrian tour of the Jazzzwio with Don Moye

Austria

Don Moye of the Art Ensemble of Chicago expanded the Jazzzwio into a trio for a tour of Austria.

Concerts
22 March 1985 to 23 March 1985

Théâtre de la Ville, Paris

Paris

The Michel Portal Unit played as a quintet with Portal, Pepl, Jenny-Clark, Humair and Mino Cinelu. Further concerts followed at the Centre Pompidou and at the Paris Museum of Modern Art.

Concerts
30 March 1985

Air Mail at the Jazzspelunke

Vienna

On Saturday 30 March 1985 Air Mail, with Pepl, Wolfgang Puschnig, Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger, played at the Jazzspelunke in Vienna. A recording of this evening exists.

Concerts
12 May 1985

Concert at the Miles Smiles club

Vienna

On the Sunday before the flight to New York, the Jazzzwio played at short notice at the Miles Smiles club in Vienna, with the drummer Georg Polansky. The live recording was released on CD in 2003.

Concerts
15 May 1985

New York: “Beyond the Sound of Music”

New York

On Wednesday 15 May 1985, Pepl and Pirchner, with Don Moye, played at the Ohio Theater in Soho at the festival “New Austria / New York”. The New York Times reviewed the festival on 18 May. On 25 March 1985 steirischer herbst (festival of contemporary art in Graz, Austria) had confirmed Pepl's participation by letter: a presentation of contemporary Austrian art marking the 40th anniversary of the liberation and the 30th anniversary of the State Treaty, with the Austrian Cultural Institute in New York and “The Kitchen” as producer. The festival “Beyond the Sound of Music. New Austria / New York” (15 to 19 May) was a showcase of contemporary Austrian art, and the trio opened it at 7.30 p.m., on the same evening as the sculptor Hartmut Skerbisch with his installation “Container” and the Viennese composer Otto M. Zykan with “Samples”. In the following days the Austrian writers H. C. Artmann, Wolfgang Bauer, Alfred Kolleritsch, Ingeborg Day and Jürg Laederach read, presented by the American novelists John Irving and Walter Abish; the New York composer and guitarist Rhys Chatham played with Blizz Frizz from Graz, alongside architecture, photography and film (Austrian Information, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 3 to 6).

Concerts
July 1985

Jazzzwio with Don Moye in Bolzano

Bolzano

Concert by Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, Harry Pepl and Don Moye at the Walther-Haus in Bolzano.

Concerts
10 October 1985 to 23 October 1985

Jazzzwio concerts in Graz and Kindberg

Graz, Kindberg

Kohler names 10 October 1985 in Graz and 23 October 1985 in Kindberg as the last verifiable concerts of the Jazzzwio. The archive of the steirischer herbst (festival of contemporary art in Styria, Austria) documents the evening in Kindberg on Wednesday, 23 October 1985, at the Gasthof Prettenthaler as a double concert with the Martin Wiederhofer Trio in the “Mürztaler Werkstatt” series, with Walter Schmocker and Robert Riegler among the performers. The archive does not list a concert on 10 October, but it does list a further Jazzzwio evening on 24 October in Graz. After that their paths parted, and Pirchner turned to composition. A live recording from Niš dated 28 October 1985 is chronologically later still.

Concerts
17 October 1985

Trio with Daniel Humair and Jean-François Jenny-Clark in Graz

Graz

On Thursday, 17 October 1985, Pepl plays at the Katholisches Studentenhaus Münzgraben, a Catholic student centre in Graz, Austria, in a trio with Daniel Humair and Jean-François Jenny-Clark, his partners from the Michel Portal Unit. At the same venue the drummer Humair shows his exhibition “Malerei und Grafik” (painting and graphic art); the evening is part of the steirischer herbst festival 1985.

Concerts
24 October 1985

Jazzzwio at the Münzgraben in Graz

Graz

On Thursday, 24 October 1985, one day after Kindberg, the Jazzzwio plays with an unnamed guest at the Katholisches Studentenhaus Münzgraben in Graz, Austria, in the “Open Spoons” series of the steirischer herbst festival, which in October 1985 also presented two concerts by Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and a conversation with the ECM founder Manfred Eicher. Kohler names 23 October in Kindberg as the last verifiable concert in Austria; the festival’s archive documents this later evening.

Concerts
28 October 1985

Naissus Jazz 85 in Niš

Niš

The Jazzzwio played live in the hall of the Niš Symphony Orchestra, Yugoslavia, together with Barry Altschul and Walter Schmocker. The piece “The Theme” was released in 1986 on a Diskos compilation.

Concerts
1986

Michel Portal: recording of “Turbulence”

Paris

The recording was made in Paris at Studio S.E.I.; Pepl plays on “Pastor”. The album was released on Harmonia Mundi and was highly praised in France.

Recordings
7 March 1986

Michel Portal at the Banlieues Bleues festival in Montreuil

Montreuil, France

At the 3rd Banlieues Bleues festival (jazz festival in the Seine-Saint-Denis département near Paris, France, since 1984), Michel Portal plays on Friday, 7 March 1986, in the Salle des fêtes of Montreuil with Jack DeJohnette, Mino Cinelu, Jean-François Jenny-Clark and Harry Pepl. This is how the festival's archive records it, and this is how the evening appeared in the concert listings of the Paris daily Le Monde (issue of 8 March 1986). According to the festival archive it is Pepl's only appearance at Banlieues Bleues between 1984 and 1990. The rehearsals on Wednesday, 5 March 1986, at the Paris club Jazz à Paris (13th arrondissement) were captured by the Magnum photographer Guy Le Querrec.

Concerts
10 March 1986

Michel Portal Unit: concert recording by Radio France

On Monday, 10 March 1986, three days after Banlieues Bleues, Radio France, the French public radio, records a concert by the Michel Portal Unit: Michel Portal, Pepl, Jean-François Jenny-Clark, Mino Cinelu, Jack DeJohnette and the percussionist Jean Schwartz, 1 hour 48 minutes. The track list names Pepl’s “Radlbremser” with Portal’s “Pastor” and Pepl’s “Das Auge des Maulwurfs” with Portal’s “No Forte”, according to Daniel Pepl two pieces each, played in direct succession or segueing into each other, plus “Halley's Comet Light Blue Blues”. The record in the catalogue of the INA, the archive of French radio and television, does not name the venue.

Concerts
May 1986

Air Mail at the Amiens jazz festival

Amiens, France

In May 1986 Air Mail plays at the 5th Festival international de jazz d'Amiens, the jazz festival of the Maison de la Culture d'Amiens, the town's arts centre (France), which ran from Tuesday 13 to Saturday 24 May. In Jazz Hot, the French jazz magazine founded in 1935, Franck Bergerot reviews the concert with Wolfgang Puschnig, Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger at the festival, then called “Le temps du jazz”, and hears “un Harry Pepl tout à fait inattendu”, an utterly unexpected Harry Pepl. A recording of just over 31 minutes survives in the family archive. The exact day is not yet documented. On Tuesday, 13 January 1987, FR3, the French regional television channel (today France 3), shows a programme with the British jazz big band Loose Tubes and Air Mail in its series “Le Temps du jazz”, recorded at the Maison de la Culture d'Amiens and including Pepl's “The Eye of the Groundhog”. The catalogue note of the INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel, the French archive for radio and television) does not give the recording date; the recording probably comes from this festival.

Concerts
10 May 1986

Air Mail at Jazz sous les pommiers in Coutances

Coutances, France

On Saturday, 10 May 1986, Air Mail plays, at 9 p.m. according to the festival archive and at 10 p.m. according to Jazz Hot, at the theatre in Coutances (Normandy, France), on the closing night of the 5th Jazz sous les pommiers, the town's jazz festival (since 1982), with Wolfgang Puschnig, Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger. According to the festival's programme text it is the band's first concert in France; it introduces Pepl as “the new star of guitar-mad jazz fans”. The Eddy Louiss Big Band and Blue Lips play on the same evening. Alain Guerrini writes in Jazz Hot, the French jazz magazine founded in 1935, that he discovered “un groupe prodigieux” there, a prodigious group.

Concerts
14 May 1986

Air Mail at the New Morning, Paris

Paris, France

On Wednesday, 14 May 1986, Air Mail plays at the New Morning, a jazz club in Paris (France), with Wolfgang Puschnig (soprano saxophone), Mike Richmond (bass) and Wolfgang Reisinger (drums). It is a club concert on the band's French tour, four days after the festival in Coutances. The Paris concert paper “Tempo” of 15 April 1986 announced the evening as the “Harry Pepl quartet”. The INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel, the French archive for radio and television) holds a concert recording of Air Mail by Radio France (France's public radio broadcaster), which it dates to the following day; whether it is the same concert remains open. According to the catalogue note, the band plays Pepl's “Mulwolf”, which his son Daniel Pepl identifies as “Das Auge des Maulwurfs” (Eye of the Groundhog), as well as “Light blue blues” (“Halley's Comet Light Blue Blues”) and “Bike breaker” (“Radlbremser”). Jazz Hot, the French jazz magazine founded in 1935, reports that on that Wednesday the American saxophonist Archie Shepp played at the New Morning, with the singer Dee Dee Bridgewater as a guest.

Concerts
24 May 1986

Air Mail in St. Gerold

St. Gerold

ORF Studio Vorarlberg (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster) recorded a concert by Air Mail in St. Gerold.

Concerts
June 1986

Air Mail at the Neuwied jazz festival

Neuwied, Germany

In June 1986 Air Mail plays at the 9th Neuwied jazz festival (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). This is how it appears in the band's tour plan, printed by the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck, a local paper in Tyrol, and in the festival's programme overview on Wikipedia, which lists “Harry Pepl’s Airmail” alongside the Dave Holland Quintet, John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra and the John Scofield Band. The day and venue are not yet documented.

Concerts
19 June 1986

Air Mail at the Hotel Sonne, Landeck

Landeck, Austria

On Thursday, 19 June 1986, Air Mail plays at 8.30 p.m. at the Hotel Sonne in Landeck (Tyrol, Austria), according to the announcement the last concert before the summer break, with Wolfgang Puschnig, Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger. The Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck, a local paper delivered to every household in the district, announces the band as “one of the best contemporary quartets on the European jazz scene” and prints its tour plan for May and June 1986 with the festivals in Coutances, Amiens, Maur near Zurich and Neuwied.

Concerts
26 September 1986

Air Mail at the Bilsak Jazz Festival in Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey

On Friday, 26 September 1986, Air Mail plays at 10 pm at the Şan Tiyatrosu (Şan Theatre) in Istanbul, Turkey, at the 2nd International Bilsak Jazz Festival (II. Uluslararası Bilsak Caz Festivali), with Wolfgang Puschnig (alto saxophone), Mike Richmond (double bass) and Wolfgang Reisinger (drums). According to its poster, the festival brought 33 foreign musicians in nine groups to Istanbul and then to Ankara, among them Albert Mangelsdorff and Hermeto Pascoal; whether Air Mail also played in Ankara is not documented. As early as June 1986 the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck, a local paper in Tyrol, Austria, had reported invitations to festivals in Istanbul, Ankara and Basel.

Concerts
27 September 1986

Rava/Saluzzi Quintet in Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey

On Saturday, 27 September 1986, one evening after Air Mail, Pepl plays at the same festival at the Şan Tiyatrosu in Istanbul, Turkey, at 11 pm in the quintet of Dino Saluzzi and Enrico Rava, with Furio Di Castri (double bass) and Bruce Ditmas (drums). It is the earliest documented concert of the quintet with Pepl so far, before the recording of “Volver” in October 1986.

Concerts
October 1986

Enrico Rava and Dino Saluzzi: “Volver”

Ludwigsburg

In October 1986 the quintet recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, followed by a three-month European tour. The album was released on 1 October 1987 on ECM (the renowned European jazz label); “Ballantine for Valentine” is Pepl's only piece on it.

Recordings
10 October 1986

Rava/Saluzzi Quintet with the NDR Bigband

Hamburg

During the European tour, the quintet of Enrico Rava and Dino Saluzzi, with Harry Pepl, played together with the NDR Bigband (NDR: Norddeutscher Rundfunk, public broadcaster for northern Germany) at the Fabrik in Hamburg-Altona.

Concerts
13 October 1986

Rava/Saluzzi Quintet at “Jazz in Gütersloh”

Gütersloh

Concert at “Jazz in Gütersloh”, with Bob Moses instead of Bruce Ditmas on drums.

Concerts
3 November 1986

Rava/Saluzzi Quintet at the Festival de Jazz de Paris

Paris, France

On Monday, 3 November 1986, a few weeks after the recording of “Volver”, the quintet of Dino Saluzzi and Enrico Rava plays with Pepl, Furio Di Castri and Bruce Ditmas at the Festival de Jazz de Paris, France. Radio France, the French public radio, records the concert; the programme includes “Volver” and Pepl’s “More Far Out Than East”.

Concerts
February 1987

Recording of “Cracked Mirrors”

Wachau, Oslo

At the suggestion of Heimo Steps (gamsbART, Graz concert promoter), Pepl recorded with Herbert Joos in a studio in the Wachau; Jon Christensen added the drums afterwards in Oslo. gamsbART advanced the costs, and ECM (the renowned European jazz label) reimbursed them later.

Recordings
May 1987

Concerts and sessions in France

Paris

In spring 1987 Pepl played several concerts in France, including sessions with Jack DeJohnette and Dave Liebman in Paris. In April the Austria Presse Agentur had announced sessions with DeJohnette, Michel Portal and Mino Cinelu for May; in June it reported his successes and praise from John Abercrombie.

Concerts
30 May 1987

Michel Portal: “Men's Land” in Amiens

Amiens, France

Live recording on Saturday, 30 May 1987, in the Grand Théâtre of the Maison de la Culture d'Amiens (France) at the Festival International de Jazz d'Amiens, with Portal, Dave Liebman, Pepl, Jenny-Clark, DeJohnette and Cinelu. The CD sleeve calls it the “7th Amiens International Jazz Festival”; the photographer Guy Le Querrec counts it as the 6th edition. Radio France (France's public radio broadcaster) records the concert. According to the catalogue note of the INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel, the French archive for radio and television), the band also plays Pepl's “Comète”, which his son Daniel Pepl identifies as “Halley's Comet Light Blue Blues”. The piece does not appear on “Men's Land” and survives only in this radio recording. France Musique broadcast excerpts on 1 November 1987.

Recordings
5 July 1987

Air Mail at the Wiesen jazz festival

Wiesen

On Sunday, 5 July 1987, Air Mail was on the programme of the festival at the “Jazzianer-Fort” in Wiesen, Burgenland, on the same day as George Russell’s big band and the Johnny Griffin Quartet. The Austria Presse Agentur announced the band with „Österreichs erstem Gitarristen Harry Pepl“ [“Austria’s foremost guitarist Harry Pepl”].

Concerts
8 July 1987 to 9 July 1987

Air Mail live at the Schlachthof Wels

Wels

The live recording for “Light Blues” was made on 8 and 9 July 1987, with Pepl, Puschnig, Richmond and Reisinger; Robert Riegler is the band's third bassist.

Recordings
March 1988

“Jazz und Stories” with Peter Turrini

Graz

At the ORF Studio Graz (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster), the pieces “Air, Love and Vitamines” and “Radlbremser” were recorded live and later released as bonus tracks on “Light Blues”.

Recordings
16 April 1988

Trio Pepl/Joos/Christensen at the Szene Wien

Vienna

On Saturday, 16 April, Pepl, Herbert Joos and Jon Christensen play at the Szene Wien, a Viennese venue for concerts, in Simmering, Vienna, Austria; the poster advertises the LP “Cracked Mirror” on ECM. The year is not on the poster; judging by the weekday and the following concerts in Linz (20 April) and Katsdorf, it was probably 1988.

Concerts
20 April 1988

Cracked Mirrors live at the Posthof Linz

Linz

Concert of the trio Pepl, Joos and Christensen. For the tour in spring 1988 the trio rehearsed at the family home in Hernstein, Lower Austria, Austria; Christensen stayed there as Pepl's guest for a considerable time.

Concerts
22 April 1988

Trio Pepl/Joos/Christensen at the Hotel Mader, Katsdorf

Katsdorf

Two days after the concert at the Posthof in Linz, the trio with Herbert Joos and Jon Christensen played at the Hotel Mader in Katsdorf.

Concerts
30 May 1988

“Cracked Mirrors” released on ECM

Munich

ECM 1356 (renowned European jazz label) was released as LP and CD. It is the first album on which Pepl makes distinctive use of the Roland MIDI guitar. It received the German Record Critics' Award (the Österreichisches Musiklexikon speaks of a nomination).

Recordings
December 1988

Joos, Pepl and Oxley at the Dieselstraße in Esslingen

Esslingen am Neckar

At the year-end concert of the series “Jazz in der Dieselstraße”, Pepl played with Herbert Joos and Tony Oxley at the Dieselstraße culture and communication centre in Esslingen; the Stuttgarter Zeitung and the Eßlinger Zeitung reviewed the concert.

Concerts
10 December 1988 to 17 December 1988

Austrian tour with Herbert Joos and Tony Oxley

Austria

The tour schedule lists Mödling, Wörgl, Nüziders, Klagenfurt, Graz and Mauterndorf. Tony Oxley replaced Jon Christensen, who was unavailable; an ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) recording exists of the concert in Tamsweg on 15 December.

Concerts
15 December 1988

Trio with Herbert Joos and Tony Oxley in Tamsweg

Tamsweg

On the Austrian tour, the ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) recorded the concert of Harry Pepl, Herbert Joos and Tony Oxley in Tamsweg; Ö1 (the ORF's cultural radio channel) broadcast the archive find in its Jazznacht in 2015.

Concerts
1989

Cracked Mirrors at the Stadtgarten in Cologne

Cologne

The trio with Herbert Joos and Jon Christensen played at the Stadtgarten in Cologne (Cologne venue for jazz and new music), and television recorded the concert.

Concerts
20 January 1989

Ten works at ORF Studio Tyrol

Innsbruck

Ten works by Pepl were premiered at ORF Studio Tyrol (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster); the titles have not survived.

Works
21 January 1989

Feature in the Ö1 Jazzstudio

Vienna

On Saturday, 21 January 1989, the Ö1 Jazzstudio (ORF’s cultural radio station) devoted a feature to Pepl.

Media
12 March 1989

Spring jazz festival at the Kurhalle Oberlaa

Vienna

At the spring jazz festival in the Kurhalle Wien-Oberlaa on Sunday, 12 March 1989, the line-up announced, alongside Carla Bley and Steve Swallow and The Leaders, Wolfgang Puschnig’s projects with Harry Pepl, Hans Koller, the Austrian saxophonist and pioneer of European jazz, and Linda Sharrock.

Concerts
16 March 1989

“Ballade for Mr. Dinozo” at the Musikverein

Vienna

In the Brahmssaal, as part of the series “Freude an Musik”, the Ensemble Wien played Pepl's piece for strings, which is dedicated to Dino Saluzzi. The initiative came in 1988 from a telephone call by Josef Pitzek; Heckel, differing, names the Ensemble Kontrapunkte.

Works
May 1989

First brain haemorrhage

Graz

In May 1989 Pepl suffers a first brain haemorrhage; this is what he himself always called it. He recovers well and, according to the family, is afterwards almost more active than before: the album “Schönberg Improvations” and most of his commissioned works in Real-time Composing follow.

Life
2 September 1989 to 9 September 1989

Guitar teacher at the first Lower Austrian Jazz Academy in Zeillern

Zeillern

From 2 to 9 September 1989 Pepl taught guitar at the first Lower Austrian Jazz Academy at Zeillern Castle near Amstetten, further training for jazz musicians without access to jazz studies. He remained a teacher at the annual summer academy until at least 1994, and in 1992 also taught at the International Jazz Academy in St. Pölten.

Teaching
November 1989

Recording of “Schönberg Improvations”

Vienna

In nine days instead of six, the album was made at the Wiener Konzerthaus, one of Vienna’s two great concert halls, on the Bösendorfer (Vienna piano maker) computer grand piano 290 SE with Dave Liebman, Wolfgang Reisinger and Johannes Enders. Pepl played the piano tracks in via MIDI guitar.

Recordings
14 December 1989

Premiere of “Grogos” in the Brahmssaal

Vienna

The commissioned work of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, a computer composition for the string quartet medium, was premiered, according to the programme booklet, by the Ensemble Wien. Pepl had handed over the score in person in November; Heckel names the Ensemble Kontrapunkte and “String I” for this evening. The list of premieres in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik likewise names the Ensemble Wien for 14 December 1989.

Works

1990s

7 February 1990

Presentation concert for “Schönberg Improvations”

Vienna

At the Wiener Konzerthaus, one of Vienna’s two great concert halls, Wolfgang Puschnig and Wolfgang Reisinger played live along with the self-playing grand piano; Pepl operated only the sustain pedal.

Concerts
27 February 1990

Composer portrait at the Vienna Musikverein

Vienna

On Tuesday, 27 February 1990, the Ensemble Kontrapunkte under Peter Keuschnig devotes a composer portrait to Pepl in the Brahms Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic, as part of an extraordinary society concert. Pepl plays guitar and a guitar-to-MIDI system; the piano sound comes from the Bösendorfer computer grand 290 SE. The soloists are Christine Whittlesey (soprano), Josef Pitzek (double bass) and Rainer Keuschnig (piano), with Wolf Peschl presenting. The programme comprises 15 pieces by Pepl: “Avo”, “Winds”, “The Last Bars of Mankind”, “Trio”, “String Nr. 1”, “Schikaneder Delight”, “Die letzte Bastion”, “Vibes Nr. 1” and “Vibes Nr. 2”, and after the interval “Einsicht ins mich”, “Brown Butterflies”, “Snow”, “Herbstzeitlose Arbeitslose”, “Grogos” and “Tintenfischinki”. According to the programme booklet most of the works were written „innerhalb der letzten Wochen“ [“within the last few weeks”]; “Schikaneder Delight” dates from 1988, and the Ensemble Wien had already premiered “Grogos” in December 1989. According to the booklet the ensemble includes Wolfgang Schulz (flute), Peter Schreiber (oboe), Siegfried Schenner (clarinet), Werner Krenn (bassoon), Erwin Sükar (horn), Rainer Küblböck (trumpet), Georg Sumpik (violin), Peter Pecha (viola) and Leonhard Wallisch (cello). A cassette recording from the estate with five pieces, among them “Trio”, both versions of “Tintenfisch Inki” and “Zwei Klarinetten”, is in the sound archive for signed-in users.

Works
19 March 1990

“Pizzicat” at the Musikverein

Vienna

At the second Kontrapunkte concert of the year in the Brahms Hall, Pepl's “Pizzicat” is performed on Monday, 19 March 1990, between works by Blacher, Berio and Frank Martin; the performers are the Ensemble Kontrapunkte under Peter Keuschnig with Christine Whittlesey (soprano) and Josef Pitzek (double bass).

Works
14 July 1990

“What It Is” with Thomas Pernes at the Wiesen jazz festival

Wiesen

At the Wiesen jazz festival on Saturday, 14 July 1990, Pepl played in the “Special Project” of the composer Thomas Pernes with Wolfgang Puschnig and Wolfgang Reisinger. The Art Ensemble of Chicago, the Bill Frisell Group and the Michael Brecker Band were on the bill the same day. With “What It Is”, Pernes wanted to overcome the narrowness of styles and boundaries.

Concerts
1991

Lower Austrian Culture Prize for Music

Lower Austria

In 1991 Pepl received the Recognition Prize of the state of Lower Austria in the music category (the state's culture prize). The tribute text from the culture prize brochure is now in the state's database of prizewinners. The state's press release of Wednesday, 25 September 1991, lists the prize, worth 25,000 schillings, as a Förderungspreis (promotion prize); the state government had approved it the day before, and the presentation was scheduled at the Stadtsaal in Zwettl.

Honours
1991

Recording grant from austro mechana for the Harry Pepl Quartet

Vienna

In 1991 austro mechana, the Austrian collecting society for mechanical reproduction rights, promised the Harry Pepl Quartet a recording grant of 50,000 schillings from its social and cultural funds. The report to the Austrian parliament on the blank cassette levy still lists it among the outstanding commitments at the end of 1991. In June 1992 the quartet recorded the album “N.Y.C. Impressure” in New York.

Recordings
17 February 1991

Seven works at ORF Studio Tyrol

Innsbruck

Seven works by Pepl were premiered at ORF Studio Tyrol (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster), played by the pianist Thomas Larcher.

Works
4 August 1991

Opening concert of the Lower Austrian Jazz Academy with Jamaaladeen Tacuma

Zeillern

On Sunday, 4 August 1991, Pepl opened the Lower Austrian Jazz Academy in the courtyard of Zeillern Castle in a quartet with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Alex Deutsch and Johannes Enders. Beforehand he told Der Standard, a Vienna daily, it might become „eine ganz freie Angelegenheit“ [“an entirely free affair”].

Concerts
November 1991

Closing concert of the ZeitgeNÖssischer Herbst

Lower Austria

The third concert series “ZeitgeNÖssischer Herbst” of the state of Lower Austria (20 September to 28 November 1991, around 11,000 visitors) ended with a highly successful concert by Pepl. Der Standard, a Vienna daily, counted the closing concert among the highlights.

Concerts
3 December 1991

Kronos Quartet at the Orpheum in Graz

Graz

On Tuesday 3 December 1991, as part of the Steirischer Herbst (festival of contemporary art in Graz), the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet performed “Moving Navel”, “String Quartet No. 8” and “Obsession”. The concert was arranged by Heimo Steps of gamsbART (Graz concert promoter); the pieces were transcribed from Pepl's recordings. The earlier website gives 1990 for “Moving Navel”.

Works
11 March 1992

Premiere of “Anspannen, Überspannen, Abspannen”

Graz

STUDIO PERCUSSION graz performed the commissioned work for five percussionists with pre-recorded tape at the Orpheum, a concert venue, Graz, alongside works by Armin Pokorn and Wolfgang Muthspiel. The CD was released in 1995.

Works
June 1992

Harry Pepl Quartet at the Knitting Factory

New York

In early June 1992, shortly before the recording of “N.Y.C. Impressure”, the quartet played at the Knitting Factory (New York music club for jazz and the avant-garde) in New York. The club's invitation gives 2 June, Nikolaus Kohler the day before the recording.

Concerts
4 June 1992 to 5 June 1992

Recording of “N.Y.C. IMPRESSURE”

New York

A few days after a concert at the Knitting Factory (New York music club for jazz and the avant-garde), the album was recorded in New York with Claus Stötter, Paul Nowinski and Jojo Mayer. In the liner notes Pepl speaks of his “Realtime-Composing”. The album was released in 1994 on Extraplatte (Vienna independent label); the dating varies between 1992 and 1994.

Recordings
7 June 1992

Harry Pepl Group at the Raab jazz festival

Raab, Upper Austria

On Whit Sunday, 7 June 1992, the Harry Pepl Group played its new programme at the jazz festival in Raab in the Innviertel, on the same evening as Wolfgang Puschnig’s “Alpine Aspects” and Ronnie Burrage’s band.

Concerts
17 July 1992 to 18 July 1992

Pori Jazz Festival with John Purcell’s Blue Brass Connection

Pori, Finland

At the 27th Pori Jazz Festival in Pori, Finland, one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe, Pepl plays in the band listed in the festival archive as “John Purcell´s Blue Brass Connection”: with the Upper Austrian trombonist Paul Zauner, whose Blue Brass Connection had been touring with US jazz musicians since 1985, and with John Purcell, Graham Haynes, Ron Burton, Kenny Davis and Ronnie Burrage. The archive lists three performances: on Friday, 17 July 1992, on the main stage at Kirjurinluoto, in a programme starting at 5 pm that the archive also lists for Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band, in the evening at the Village Gate, and on Saturday, 18 July 1992, at the Nuorisokeskus, the youth centre. A few months later Purcell, Davis, Burrage, Zauner and Pepl formed the core of Abstract Truth.

Concerts
26 July 1992 to 31 July 1992

Teacher at the International Jazz Academy in St. Pölten

St. Pölten

From 26 to 31 July 1992 Pepl taught at the International Jazz Academy in St. Pölten, alongside Butch Morris, John Purcell, George Lewis and Toshiko Akiyoshi, who led the closing concert in the Stadtsäle.

Teaching
12 August 1992

Faculty concert of the Lower Austrian Jazz Academy

Zeillern

At the Lower Austrian Jazz Academy at Zeillern Castle (9 to 15 August 1992), Pepl played in the faculty concert (“Jazzakademie All Stars”) on Wednesday, 12 August, with Claus Stötter, Bobby Dodge, Martin Fuss, Joris Dudli and Ines Reiger. The Kurier, a Vienna daily, called him the „Gitarrenguru der österreichischen Jazzszene“ [“guitar guru of the Austrian jazz scene”].

Concerts
31 October 1992

Frankfurt-Wien-Connection at the Deutsches Jazzfestival Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main

At the 24th Deutsches Jazzfestival Frankfurt (Germany’s oldest jazz festival, organised by the public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk) the Frankfurt-Wien-Connection plays the second concert in the Bockenheimer Depot on Saturday, 31 October 1992: Harry Pepl (guitar), Stefan Lottermann (trombone), Michael Riessler (bass clarinet), Claus Stötter (trumpet), Bob Harrison (bass) and François Laizeau (drums), with compositions by Pepl. The hr produces the recording itself and, according to its archive, broadcasts it on hr2 the same day. Details from the database extract of the hr media archive (case AS_2026_0421, Tuesday, 20 October 2026); the copy of the recording remains in the family archive.

Concerts
December 1992

Cover of Jazzlive

Vienna

The Viennese jazz magazine Jazzlive shows Harry Pepl on the cover of its issue no. 99, photographed by the publisher Rainer Rygalyk; in the issue, Hannes Schweiger reports on the New York Knitting Factory (New York music club for jazz and the avant-garde) and Pepl's appearance there.

Media
May 1993

Air Mail re-forms

Vienna

In May 1993 Air Mail performed again after a long break, at the Vienna jazz venue Reigen with Wolfgang Puschnig, Harry Pepl, Wolfgang Reisinger and Palle Danielsson. Der Standard, a Vienna daily, wrote that almost everything this country had to offer in jazz of international quality was gathered there. The concert at the Raab jazz festival followed at the end of May.

Concerts
5 May 1993

Concert in the former synagogue in St. Pölten

St. Pölten

On Wednesday, 5 May 1993, Pepl played in the former synagogue in St. Pölten with John Purcell, Paul Zauner, Jeff Andrews and Ronnie Burrage, a line-up from the circle of Abstract Truth.

Concerts
6 May 1993

Premiere of “Über Kurz oder Lang” by the Artis Quartet

Vienna

The string quartet in three movements was written in February 1993 and premiered on Thursday 6 May 1993 in the Brahmssaal of the Musikverein (historic concert hall of the Society of Friends of Music). The ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) recorded the concert; a quiet passage is accompanied by a thunderstorm.

Works
28 May 1993 to 30 May 1993

Last Air Mail concert in Raab

Raab, Upper Austria

At the Whitsun jazz festival in Raab (Friday, 28, to Whit Sunday, 30 May 1993), later known as INNtöne (jazz festival in Diersbach, Upper Austria), Air Mail played for the last time, with Jean-Paul Celea on bass (Palle Danielsson had been announced) and the piece “Dinozzo”. Shortly before, the band had re-formed after a long break at the Reigen in Vienna. A professional recording exists.

Concerts
23 September 1993 to 25 September 1993

“Die Innviertler Seele” at the Festival der Regionen

Aspach, Obernberg, Zell an der Pram

For Paul Zauner’s project “Die Innviertler Seele” at the Festival der Regionen (Upper Austrian arts festival), George Lewis, Gene Jackson, Harry Pepl and Christian Radovan met Innviertel zither music and a traditional brass band: on Thursday, 23 September 1993, at the Gasthof Zwink in Aspach, on the 24th in the multi-purpose hall in Obernberg and on the 25th at Zell an der Pram Castle.

Concerts
1994

“Beginnings” with Abstract Truth and a personal showcase at the Porgy & Bess

Vienna, New York

Pepl recorded the album “Beginnings” with Paul Zauner, John Purcell, Kenny Davis and Ronnie Burrage (Amadeo, former Vienna label for jazz and classical music, PAO Records (label of the trombonist and INNtöne festival founder Paul Zauner)). In the same year he had a three-day personal showcase at the Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club) in Vienna; on one of the evenings he played with Wolfgang Mitterer, according to Mitterer's chronology also with Gene Jackson.

Recordings
1994

Concerts with Labarrière, Jackson and Mitterer

Kyiv, Graz, Vienna

Harry Pepl plays one of his last concert series with Hélène Labarrière (double bass), Gene Jackson (drums) and Wolfgang Mitterer (synthesizer), among other places in Kyiv (Ukraine), there according to Mitterer also with Paul Zauner, probably in Slovakia, in Graz with Wolfgang Puschnig and at Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club) in Vienna. No recording has survived in the family archive; of the Graz concert at the Graz Meeting, the Austrian Mediathek holds a recording that can only be heard on site.

Concerts
18 April 1994

“Porträt Harry Pepl” at the Porgy & Bess

Vienna

In the portrait series of the Vienna jazz club Porgy & Bess, Pepl was presented on several evenings in mid-April 1994. On Monday, 18 April, he played solo in the first part, then with Gene Jackson (drums) and Wolfgang Mitterer (keyboards).

Concerts
20 April 1994

Harry Pepl Quartet at the Graz Meeting “Strings”

Graz

At the third Graz Meeting (jazz festival of the Graz music academy and gamsbART, dedicated to string instruments in 1994), the Harry Pepl Quartet with Wolfgang Puschnig played at the Orpheum, a concert venue in Graz, on Wednesday, 20 April 1994, on the same evening as Derek Bailey, Dieter Glawischnig’s Cercle and the double bass duo Ewald Oberleitner and Wayne Darling. The Österreichische Mediathek (Austrian Mediathek), Austria’s archive of sound and video recordings at the Technisches Museum Wien, holds an unreleased recording of the concert and the broadcast “Aus dem Konzertsaal: Graz Meeting 1994” by Ö1, ORF’s cultural radio station, featuring the quartet, both on cassette and available only on site; the catalogue does not name the other musicians.

Concerts
May 1994

CD recording for STUDIO PERCUSSION graz

Straßengel near Graz

At the OPUS studio in Straßengel near Graz, STUDIO PERCUSSION graz recorded the three works by Pepl, Muthspiel and Pokorn (Extraplatte (Vienna independent label) EX 242-2).

Recordings
22 May 1994

Duo with Jack DeJohnette at the Innviertel jazz festival

Raab, Upper Austria

On Whit Sunday, 22 May 1994, Pepl played a duo on guitar synthesizer with Jack DeJohnette, switching between piano and drums, in the Rothuberhalle in Raab. The Kronen Zeitung, Austria’s largest-circulation daily, Der Standard and the Salzburger Nachrichten singled out the duo. The Slovak music magazine “Hudobný život” also lists the duo in June 1994 among the festival’s performances, alongside the Brecker Brothers, the Dave Holland Quartet and David Murray.

Concerts
31 July 1994

Opening concert of the Lower Austrian Jazz Academy with the Harry Pepl Quartet

Zeillern

To open the sixth Lower Austrian Jazz Academy, the Harry Pepl Quartet played at Zeillern Castle on Sunday, 31 July 1994, at 9 pm, with Claus Stötter (trumpet) and Jojo Mayer (drums) among others. Pepl taught guitar there until 6 August.

Concerts
August 1994

Second brain haemorrhage

Upper Austria

In August 1994 Pepl suffers a second brain haemorrhage. From 1994/95 he then withdraws completely from life on tour and from public view; only a few performances follow. For him, who lived from playing together in the moment, this is deeply painful and tragic. Yet he makes the best of it, first at the piano, then with the Lonely Single Swinger Band.

Life
5 November 1994

With Harry Sokal and Friedrich Gulda at the Brucknerhaus Linz

Linz

On Saturday, 5 November 1994, after “A night with Friedrich Gulda”, “The Harry Sokal Quartet feat. Harry Pepl” played at 10 pm in the Brucknersaal of the Brucknerhaus Linz, with Friedrich Gulda as guest.

Concerts
1995

End of teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG)

Graz

Teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz ended in 1995 according to Heckel, the Musikergilde, Jazz thing and nmz; the information sheet and Kohler give 1994.

Teaching
1995

Home studio in Hernstein: the Lonely Single Swinger Band

Hernstein

From the mid-1990s Pepl recorded a large number of multitrack recordings in his home studio in the cellar in Hernstein, Lower Austria (“Ich geh jetzt ins Bergwerk”, I’m off to the mine now, as he used to say), and catalogued and rated them. He played all the instruments himself and called the project “Lonely Single Swinger Band”; the earlier website gives 1996 as the start. From 1995/1996 his son Daniel Pepl assisted him as sound engineer with recording, mixing and mastering.

Ensembles
November 1995

Piano album “Consequence”

Vienna

In November 1995, twelve freely improvised piano pieces were recorded at the Bösendorfer (Vienna piano maker) factory in Vienna. The album remained unreleased during his lifetime and was released on 15 May 2020.

Recordings
12 November 1995

Abstract Truth at the Reigen in Vienna

Vienna

As part of Johannes Kunz’s Vienna “Jazz-Herbst”, Abstract Truth with Harry Pepl was announced for the Reigen on Sunday, 12 November 1995, together with the Archie Shepp Quartet (announced by APA, trend and Kronen Zeitung, Austria’s largest-circulation daily; no report of the concert is known, and Daniel Pepl has questioned the year). A concert by the band scheduled for Tuesday, 24 October, at the WIST in Graz had been cancelled.

Concerts
1996

Withdrawal from the stage

Hernstein

After the two brain haemorrhages of 1989 and 1994 Pepl has withdrawn from life on tour and from public view; the earlier website gives 1996. After 1994 there are no more planned concerts of his own; in December 1997 he joins in once more at the INNtöne festival in Upper Austria, in changing line-ups, mainly on piano and drums. He makes the best of it: first at the piano, because the guitar has become too analytical for him, then in his home studio in Hernstein, Lower Austria, with the Lonely Single Swinger Band, highly productive until 2005. Peter Paul Skrepek records his words: „Jetzt, wo ich alles spielen kann, was ich will, darf ich nicht mehr.“ [“Now that I can play everything I want, I’m no longer allowed to.”]

Life
1996

Federal composition grant

Vienna

The Austrian federal government supports Pepl as a composer with a composition grant of 60,000 schillings (about 4,360 euros). The Kunstbericht 1996, the government’s annual report to the Austrian parliament on federal arts funding, lists it among the individual grants of the department for music and the performing arts.

Kunstbericht 1996 at the Austrian Parliament, p. 140

Works
10 March 1996

Piano album “Flow”

Vienna

Twelve real-time compositions were recorded in a single take on the Steinway in the Brahmssaal of the Vienna Musikverein (PAO Records, label of the trombonist and INNtöne festival founder Paul Zauner). It is the last album he oversaw in his lifetime.

Recordings
19 October 1996

Premiere of “Exzentrik Egometrik” in Deutschlandsberg

Deutschlandsberg

At the 13th Jugendmusikfest Deutschlandsberg, part of the steirischer herbst (festival of contemporary art in Styria), Pepl’s “Exzentrik Egometrik” was premiered at the Laßnitzhaus on Saturday, 19 October 1996, played by the Altenberg Trio Wien, whose members from 1994 to 2004 were Claus-Christian Schuster (piano), Amiram Ganz (violin) and Martin Hornstein (cello), and repeated on Sunday, 20 October. In the second part of the evening the Österreichisches Ballett Theater presented Ernst Widmer’s “Die letzte Blume”. The archive of the steirischer herbst lists the evening as “ballett theater” with the Altenberg Trio and choreography by Christian Martinu, but names only Ernst Widmer and Mauricio Kagel as composers.

Works
5 December 1997 to 6 December 1997

INNtöne Festival with Michel Portal

Zell an der Pram

According to Daniel Pepl, once he had withdrawn from the stage after 1994, there were no more planned concerts of his own. At the INNtöne festival weekend (Paul Zauner's festival of contemporary music) on Friday, 5, and Saturday, 6 December 1997, in the baroque hall of Zell an der Pram Castle, Upper Austria, he nevertheless took part in the changing line-ups; the previews had announced him by name. On the Friday, according to the OÖ Volksblatt, an Upper Austrian daily, he played “first on the piano, then on the drums”, together with the trumpeter Franz Hackl; on the Saturday he joined the group around Michel Portal and Stephen Kent, with Wolfgang Reisinger on drums and Steve Shehan on percussion. Whether he also played guitar remains open: in its preview the Wiener Zeitung, the Vienna daily founded in 1703, had written, in connection with his new CD on PAO Records: “Pepl is not playing guitar but piano”. The OÖ Volksblatt, by contrast, lists “piano, guitar” for the Saturday, and the OÖ Nachrichten, another Upper Austrian daily, wrote that “as a string player” he had created “fabulous special moments” with Portal. Toninho Horta and Alvin Batiste also played at the festival. It was his last concert appearance covered by reviews.

Concerts
April 1998

Interview in Concerto

Vienna

In the interview „Man könnte Klavierspielen müssen“ [“One might have to play the piano”] in the magazine Concerto (no. 2/1998), Pepl talks to Martin Schuster about his work, Benny Goodman, ECM (the renowned European jazz label) and the piano, above all about his solo piano album “Flow”, recorded in March 1996. The conversation took place in early 1998: Pepl already speaks of the INNtöne festival “last autumn” (December 1997), and the table of contents of the issue calls it “the comeback of Harry Pepl”.

Media
May 1998

“Anspannen, Überspannen, Abspannen” at the Stefaniensaal in Graz

Graz

At the jazz subscription concert of the Graz music academy (today the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz) in the Stefaniensaal in early May 1998, STUDIO PERCUSSION graz under Günter Meinhart played Pepl’s “Anspannen, Überspannen, Abspannen” and Minoru Miki’s “Marimba Spiritual”; Graham Collier then led the academy’s big band.

Works
21 October 1998

Lower Austrian Prize of Honour for Music

Lower Austria

Pepl received the Würdigungspreis (prize of honour) for music of the state of Lower Austria (150,000 schillings), approved by the state government on Tuesday, 8 September 1998. Governor Erwin Pröll presented the culture prizes on Wednesday, 21 October 1998, in the Shedhalle in St. Pölten's cultural district; in the musical programme Pepl’s “Tintenfishinky” was played from tape; Pepl himself did not perform that day (information from Daniel Pepl, who was present, 20 October 2026). The state press office had also announced the “Mostviertler Birnbeitler”, a wind octet conducted by Robert Pussecker. On 3 November 1998 the Kurier, a Vienna daily, reported an award for the jazz musician from Hernstein, Lower Austria, without naming the prize.

Honours
1999

“Frischwärts” and the Christmas CD

Hernstein

In his cellar studio Pepl recorded “Frischwärts”, playing everything himself: drums, and while drumming he also struck a drum sample pad with additional sounds, which makes the recording very dense and intense. On top came electric guitar with distortion and a MIDI trumpet sound, and acoustic guitar. He burned the “Weihnachts-CD 1999, Vol. 1” with ten titles, including “Fugendichtung”.

Recordings
1999 to 2001

Jury member in federal music funding

Vienna

From autumn 1999 Pepl sits on juries of the arts section of the Federal Chancellery, each time together with the composer Paul Hertel and the composer and organist Michael Radulescu: in 1999 on the jury for the Förderungspreis für Musik (a federal music prize) in the category of orchestral works, in 2000 on the jury for the Staatsstipendien (state grants) for composers and in the second half of 2001 on the jury for the composition grants. This is recorded in the Kunstberichte, the government’s annual reports to the Austrian parliament on federal arts funding.

Kunstberichte at the Austrian Parliament: 1999, p. 106; 2000, p. 100; 2001, p. 95

Life

2000s

1 April 2000

Premiere of “Zeitraffer”

Klosterneuburg

At the concert “Einkreisung” on Saturday, 1 April 2000, 7.30 pm, at the Schömer-Haus in Klosterneuburg (music series of the Essl Collection, a private museum of contemporary art in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, artistic direction Karlheinz Essl), STUDIO PERCUSSION graz under Günter Meinhart gives the premiere of “Zeitraffer” for percussion ensemble and tape, between Iannis Xenakis' “Perséphassa” and Adriana Hölszky's “Jagt die Wölfe zurück”. The six percussionists stand in an ellipse around the audience. According to Heckel the composer was not present. In his programme note Pepl writes: „Ich bin Kind unsrer Zeit: Zeitraffer ist auch meine Devise.“ [“I am a child of our time: time-lapse is my motto too.”] Real-time composing, his working method, he calls „totale Improvisation im Sog der Geschwindigkeit des Augenblicks“ [“total improvisation in the pull of the speed of the moment”].

Programme at the Essl Collection

Works
November 2000

“Zeitraffer” at the Autumn Concerts in Graz

Graz

In November 2000 STUDIO PERCUSSION graz played Pepl’s “Zeitraffer” for percussion ensemble and tape at Berndt Luef’s “Autumn Concerts” at the Forum Stadtpark in Graz (Styria, Austria), alongside works by Adriana Hölszky and Iannis Xenakis. ORF (Austria’s public broadcaster) recorded the concert for its programme “Zeit-Ton”.

Concerts
2001

“Light Blues” reissued

Vienna

The CD “Light Blues” by Air Mail was reissued in the series Austrian Jazzart on Universal/EmArcy with two bonus tracks.

Recordings
10 August 2001

Death of Werner Pirchner

Innsbruck

The vibraphonist and composer Werner Pirchner, Pepl's partner in the Jazzzwio, died on Friday, 10 August 2001, in Innsbruck (Tyrol, Austria), aged 61.

Life
28 July 2002 to 24 August 2002

Muthspiel & Muthspiel play Pepl and Pirchner for the first time

Krems an der Donau

Commissioned by the Glatt & Verkehrt festival (idea: Josef Aichinger) and as part of the campaign “Kunst gegen Gewalt” (Art against violence), Wolfgang Muthspiel and Christian Muthspiel presented their programme with the music of the Jazzzwio on Sunday, 28 July 2002, at 9 pm in the Minoritenkirche in Krems-Stein (Lower Austria, Austria). On Saturday, 24 August 2002, they played it at 3 pm at the 24th International Jazzfestival Saalfelden (Salzburg, Austria). Wolfgang Muthspiel had studied with Pepl in Graz until he moved to Boston in 1986.

Concerts
24 November 2002 to 1 December 2002

Muthspiel & Muthspiel play Pepl and Pirchner

Austria

After the premiere in the summer, the brothers Wolfgang Muthspiel and Christian Muthspiel tour Austria in autumn 2002 with the programme “Muthspiel & Muthspiel play Pepl-Pirchner”. It is their tribute to the Jazzzwio and to Werner Pirchner, who died in 2001, and their first engagement with composed material. „Wir werden die Musik in unsere Sprache zu übersetzen versuchen“ [“We will try to translate the music into our own language”], says Wolfgang Muthspiel. Besides pieces from the three Jazzzwio LPs, unreleased material and their own compositions inspired by Pirchner and Pepl are planned. According to the Edition Werner Pirchner calendar, the tour ran from 24 November to 1 December 2002 to Oberwart, Vienna (Porgy & Bess), Hallein, Wels, Hall in Tirol, Dornbirn and Deutschlandsberg; further concerts followed from 2003 to 2006, including at the Treibhaus Innsbruck and the Glass Hall of the Vienna Musikverein (2005).

Concerts
2003

Two Goodman and Jazzzwio releases

Vienna

In 2003 the concert recording “Live at Miles Smiles” was released in the series Austrian Jazzart, along with the CD/DVD “Farewell” with Benny Goodman, recorded at the Tivoli (amusement park and concert venue) in Copenhagen.

Recordings
22 January 2003

Wolfgang Muthspiel Trio pays tribute to Pepl in Dornbirn

Dornbirn

The trio of Wolfgang Muthspiel with Marc Johnson and Brian Blade opened the spring programme of “Jazz&”, as the jazz series of the Spielboden is called, at the Spielboden in Dornbirn (Vorarlberg, Austria), on Wednesday, 22 January 2003, playing standards, pieces by Thelonious Monk and Vince Mendoza and music by his teacher Pepl. According to the Vorarlberger Nachrichten the band was warming up for its next record; in 2004 the same line-up released “Air, Love & Vitamins”.

Concerts
20 November 2003 to 22 November 2003

Muthspiel & Muthspiel: 20 years as a duo with the music of the Jazzzwio

Vienna

In the twentieth year of their duo, Wolfgang and Christian Muthspiel played the music of the Jazzzwio together with Pirchner’s film “Der Untergang des Alpenlandes”: on 20 November 2003 at the Porgy & Bess in Vienna (Der Standard gives the 21st), at the Graz jazz club M59, where they had heard the Jazzzwio as listeners some 25 years earlier, and on Saturday, 22 November 2003, at the Treibhaus in Innsbruck (Tyrol, Austria).

Concerts
2004

Wolfgang Muthspiel: “Air, Love & Vitamins”

Pepl's student Wolfgang Muthspiel released an album on Quinton Records with Marc Johnson and Brian Blade, with Pepl's composition as the title piece. The “Schönberg Improvations” were reissued in the same year on Universal/EmArcy.

Recordings
5 August 2004 to 8 August 2004

Creation of “Dedicated to Michel Noiret's Stockhausen”

Hernstein

Between 5 and 8 August 2004 Pepl recorded the piece, inspired by an ARTE film about the dancer Michèle Noiret, with drums, a double bass sample and electric guitar. It was not released until 2020, on “Volume One”.

Recordings
17 September 2004

“Habanero-Slide-Show” at the Blue Tomato, Vienna

Vienna

First performance of music by the Lonely Single Swinger Band with live musicians and photos by Rainer Rygalyk. Pepl was present at the concerts.

Concerts
4 November 2004

Salzburger Jazzherbst

Salzburg

At the ninth Salzburger Jazzherbst (jazz festival in Salzburg, Austria), Rainer Rygalyk and Harry Pepl presented their “Habanero” slide show on Thursday, 4 November 2004, at 7.30 pm in the ORF regional studio in Salzburg (Nonntal), in a double bill with the Gerald Preinfalk Trio. Lorenz Raab, Wolfgang Schiftner and Clemens Salesny played live to Pepl's recordings in front of photos by Rainer Rygalyk. There is no live recording, because Pepl rejected an unpaid ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) broadcast. At the rehearsal Pepl explained his music and his concepts to the three young musicians; Clemens Salesny later became the central figure of the Lonely Single Swinger Band's live performances.

Harry Pepl explains his music: rehearsal at the Salzburger Jazzherbst 2004Photo: Rainer Rygalyk

Concerts
10 September 2005

60th birthday

A few months before his death, Pepl celebrated his 60th birthday and, according to Rainer Rygalyk, still had much planned.

Life
5 December 2005

Death of Harry Pepl

Wiener Neustadt

Harry Pepl died on Monday 5 December 2005, aged 60, in Wiener Neustadt. Several obituaries give Vienna as the place of death; Jazz thing gives 6 December.

Life
12 December 2005

Funeral in Hernstein

Hernstein

On Monday, 12 December 2005, Harry Pepl lay in state in the parish church of Hernstein (Lower Austria, Austria) and was buried in Hernstein cemetery after a requiem mass, in the presence of many people from the jazz community.

Life
15 December 2005

Ö1 “Spielräume”: “Im Gegenwind. Erinnerungen an Harry Pepl”

On Thursday, 15 December 2005, at 5.30 pm, Ö1 (ORF’s cultural radio station) remembered Harry Pepl with Giselher Smekal in its “Spielräume” series (the title means “Against the wind. Memories of Harry Pepl”). On 6 December the 7 am Ö1 Morgenjournal had already broadcast an obituary by Wolfgang Bilek.

Media
19 March 2006

JazzWerkstatt Wien: In memoriam Harry Pepl

Vienna

At the second festival of the JazzWerkstatt Wien at the WUK in Vienna, the evening of 19 March 2006 was dedicated to the memory of Harry Pepl and Bumi Fian, with guests such as Wolfgang Puschnig, Wolfgang Reisinger and Raphael Preuschl. The JazzWerkstatt had been founded in 2004 by, among others, Clemens Wenger, Clemens Salesny, Wolfgang Schiftner and Daniel Riegler.

Concerts
27 April 2006 to 23 July 2006

Christian Muthspiel Trio plays Pepl and Pirchner

Graz

On the third evening of the GrazJazz 2006 festival (“Heimspiel”) at the Orpheum, a concert venue, in Graz (Styria, Austria), Christian Muthspiel honoured Pirchner and Pepl with his new trio featuring Franck Tortiller and Georg Breinschmid. In the summer the trio played at the Stadttheater in Gmunden (Salzkammergut Festwochen, Friday, 21 July 2006) and in the Minoritenkirche in Krems-Stein (Glatt & Verkehrt, Sunday, 23 July 2006), each time with Pirchner’s film “Der Untergang des Alpenlandes”.

Concerts
September 2006

Nikolaus Kohler's diploma thesis

Vienna

At the University of Vienna, Nikolaus Kohler submitted the first detailed academic study of Pepl, supervised by Regine Allgayer-Kaufmann.

Media
18 November 2006

First Harry Pepl Prize awarded in Graz

Graz

At the 14th Austrian Soundcheck (festival in Graz) at the Studentenhaus Münzgraben, the Jazzkartell Graz (gamsbART, Graz concert promoter) awarded the Harry Pepl Prize for the first time, for musicians under 30, a scholarship of 5,000 euros from the City of Graz. The print editions of the Kronen Zeitung and the Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, from 13 to 20 November 2006 confirm 18 November. Heckel dates the founding of the prize to 2009, which contemporary sources refute. The first winner is the saxophonist Wolfgang Schiftner, co-founder of the JazzWerkstatt Wien.

Honours
6 December 2006

“A Tribute to Harry Pepl” at the Porgy & Bess

Vienna

On Wednesday 6 December 2006, Lorenz Raab and Raphael Preuschl, the Andy Manndorff Trio, the Koehne Quartet and Peter Ponger played at the Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club) in Vienna. The concert films of Goodman 1980 and of the Jazzzwio in Montreux 1981 were shown; the proceeds went to the estate administration.

Honours
9 December 2006

Ö1 Jazznacht with unreleased recordings

About a year after Pepl’s death, Christian Bakonyi presented him in largely unreleased recordings in the Ö1 Jazznacht (all-night jazz programme on ORF’s cultural radio station) from 11.05 pm; the studio guest was his son Daniel Pepl. The Wiener Zeitung, the Vienna daily founded in 1703, announced the broadcast on 7 and 9 December 2006 for Saturday night. A recording survives in the family on CD.

Media
2007

Christian Muthspiel: “Against the Wind”

Christian Muthspiel released a tribute album with the music of Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Harry Pepl on Universal/EmArcy.

Recordings
22 January 2007 to 17 June 2009

“Against the Wind” live: prize concert and tour

Vienna

On Monday, 22 January 2007, Christian Muthspiel celebrated the Austrian Prize of Merit for Music 2006 at the Porgy & Bess, the city’s best-known jazz club, in Vienna with his trio and the music of Pirchner and Pepl. The programme “Against the Wind” then toured until 2009, including the Spielboden in Dornbirn (13 April 2007), the Forum Kloster in Gleisdorf (30 May 2007), the Stadttheater in Wiener Neustadt (June 2007), the Posthof in Linz (25 September 2007), Mariahof (29 September 2007), the Generalmusikdirektion in Graz (1 October 2007), the Kunsthaus in Mürzzuschlag (5 October 2007), the Oval in Salzburg (30 January 2008), the Moods jazz club in Zurich, Switzerland (31 January 2008), the Amthof in Feldkirchen in Carinthia (18 May 2008), Lunz am See (25 July 2008), Rottenmann (4 March 2009), Amstetten (5 March 2009), Lienz (21 March 2009) and the Treibhaus in Innsbruck (17 June 2009), all in Austria unless stated otherwise.

Concerts
13 March 2007

Deutschlandfunk “Milestones”

The Deutschlandfunk (Germany's national public radio station) broadcast the series “Milestones, Klassiker der Jazzgeschichte” on Harry Pepl in its late-night radio programme, with Montreux 81, the ECM (the renowned European jazz label) trio and Air Mail.

Media
July 2007 to November 2008

Daniel Pepl prepares the Jazzzwio release

Vienna

Between summer 2007 and autumn 2008, Daniel Pepl mastered and edited the recordings from Montreux and Innsbruck for release in January 2009. He was supported by Heimo Steps, Gerhard Kosel and Universal Music.

Estate
22 November 2007 to 6 December 2007

Wolfgang Schiftner: “FM-Syndrom, A Tribute to Harry Pepl”

Graz

On Thursday, 22 November 2007, the first Harry Pepl Prize winner Wolfgang Schiftner presented his Harry Pepl programme “FM-Syndrom” at the 17th Austrian Soundcheck (festival in Graz, Austria) at the Generalmusikdirektion in Graz; it bears the title of Pepl’s piece “FM Syndrom”. On 6 December 2007, two years after Pepl’s death, he played at the “Tribute to Harry Pepl” at the Porgy & Bess, the city’s best-known jazz club, in Vienna, where Wolfgang Mitterer also performed.

Concerts
2008

Wolfgang Schalk dedicates “And Harry Said Goodbye” to Pepl

Los Angeles

On his album “Wanted” (Frame Up Music), released in 2008 and recorded in Los Angeles, USA, with Geoffrey Keezer and Marvin “Smitty” Smith, the Styrian guitarist Wolfgang Schalk dedicates the piece “And Harry Said Goodbye” to Pepl. All About Jazz, the US online jazz magazine, reviews the album in September 2008 and singles out the ballad; on Friday, 20 February 2009, Die Presse, a Vienna daily, calls it particularly beautiful. Schalk’s Graz teacher Franz J. Posch had once drawn his attention to Pepl.

Media
17 November 2008

18th Austrian Soundcheck: award ceremony and CD/DVD presentation

Graz

On Monday 17 November 2008, the CD and DVD “Pepl/Pirchner Jazzzwio live in Montreux und Innsbruck” were presented in Graz and the Harry Pepl Prize was awarded. The winner is the trombonist and composer Daniel Riegler, leader of the ensemble Studio Dan and co-founder of the JazzWerkstatt Wien.

Honours
January 2009

“Live In Concerts” released

Vienna

The 1981 Montreux live recording, together with the 1984 Innsbruck recording and video, was released on Universal/EmArcy as CD and DVD. It was reviewed by Kurier, Kronen Zeitung, Austria’s largest-circulation daily, and Concerto.

Recordings

2010s

11 June 2010

Robert Riegler and Primus Sitter: “Air, Love & Vitamines”

Ried im Innkreis, Upper Austria

The bassist Robert Riegler and the guitarist Primus Sitter play their duo programme “Air, Love & Vitamines” at the KIK in Ried im Innkreis (Upper Austria, Austria), with compositions by Harry Pepl, Werner Pirchner, Robert Riegler, Rebekka Bakken, Primus Sitter and Sting.

Concerts
22 November 2010

Harry Pepl Prize for Stefan Heckel

Graz

On Monday, 22 November 2010, at the close of the 20th Austrian Soundcheck (festival in Graz) at the Orpheum, a concert venue, in Graz, Austria, the Styrian pianist and accordionist Stefan Heckel receives the third Harry Pepl Prize of the Graz promoter gamsbART, a grant of 4,000 euros (the Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, gives 4,500 euros after the ceremony), expressly as the starting point for a doctoral thesis on Pepl's work. As a prelude, Daniel Riegler, prize winner 2008, and Matthias Muche play three of Pepl's real-time compositions as a trombone duo, among them “125/250” from the Air Mail years. In 2024 Heckel completed a dissertation on Pepl's late work at the mdw (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna).

Honours
8 December 2010

Christian Muthspiel Trio plays Pirchner and Pepl in Feldafing

Feldafing

On Wednesday, 8 December 2010, the trio of Christian Muthspiel plays its programme “Against the Wind” with the music of Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Harry Pepl at the Kulturkeller in Feldafing on Lake Starnberg (Bavaria, Germany). The Süddeutsche Zeitung calls the Jazzzwio a group “that gave European jazz important impulses”.

Concerts
13 June 2013

Stephan Mathoi and Philipp Hager play Pirchner and Pepl in Imst

Imst, Tyrol

At the first Laurentius concert in the Laurentius church on the Bergl in Imst (Tyrol, Austria), the guitarist Stephan Mathoi and the vibraphonist Philipp Hager play works by Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl as well as their own pieces on Thursday, 13 June 2013, under the motto “Entgleiste Klassik” (classical music off the rails), in the line-up of the Jazzzwio.

Concerts
22 November 2013

Harry Pepl Prize for Clemens Salesny

Graz

On Friday 22 November 2013 the alto saxophonist Clemens Salesny receives the Harry Pepl Prize at the Austrian Soundcheck (festival in Graz) in Graz, Austria; according to Ö1 (the ORF's cultural radio channel) and mica (Austria's music information centre) it is already the fourth presentation. The evening billed as “Super Sax!” was scheduled for the Dom im Berg and, according to the Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, on the day of the concert, moved to the Orpheum extra; Salesny plays there in a trio with Martin Bayer and Peter Primus Frosch. In 2015 he records with both of them and Agnes Heginger the double CD for the tenth anniversary of Pepl's death, playing along to his original tracks.

Honours
23 December 2013

Jazzzwio Legner-Rofner plays Pepl and Pirchner

Absam, Tyrol

On Monday, 23 December 2013, the vibraphonist Matthias Legner and the bassist Clemens Rofner, as “Jazzzwio Legner-Rofner”, play selected compositions by Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner at the Gemeindemuseum Absam (Tyrol, Austria), almost 30 years after the Jazzzwio. According to the announcement, the evening is meant to „die leider oft übersehenen Pepl-Pirchner-Jazztunes zeitgemäß in Erinnerung rufen“ [“bring the sadly often overlooked Pepl-Pirchner jazz tunes back to mind in a contemporary way”]. The announcement quotes Heimo Steps on the Jazzzwio.

Concerts
2014

“Olymp” on “Schnitzelbeat Volume 1”

Pepl's composition “Olymp” from 1964 was reissued on the compilation of Austrian rock ’n’ roll and beat rarities.

Recordings
4 July 2014

Pepl's music at the graduation ceremony of the University of Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt, Carinthia

At the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Cultural Studies and the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Klagenfurt (Carinthia, Austria) on Friday, 4 July 2014, in the Hans Romauch Hall, the Primus Sitter Trio (Primus Sitter, guitar; Stefan Gfrerrer, double bass; Emil Krištof, percussion) played Harry Pepl's “Air, Love & Vitamins” for the procession. Later in the programme came Sitter's own piece “Drei Diplomaten für H.P.” (Three diplomats for H.P.).

Concerts
20 November 2014

Ö1 on the ORF Big Band

Vienna

In “Apropos Musik” on Thursday, 20 November 2014, Klaus Wienerroither portrays on Ö1 (ORF's cultural radio station) the ORF Big Band, which from 1971 to 1982 produced high-quality orchestral jazz alongside functional music, with soloists such as Art Farmer and Harry Pepl.

Media
August 2015

Christian Muthspiel remembers Pirchner and Pepl in Saalfelden

Saalfelden

At the Jazzfestival Saalfelden (Salzburg, Austria) at the end of August 2015, Christian Muthspiel plays his homage “Homesick” for Werner Pirchner's 75th birthday with Franck Tortiller and Jerome Harris, recalling the Jazzzwio with Harry Pepl, among others with “Against the Wind” and “Air, Love & Vitamins”. Ö1 broadcasts the recording on 14 July 2016.

Concerts
19 September 2015

Ö1 Jazznacht “Erinnerungen an Harry Pepl”

Vienna

On the occasion of his 70th birthday, Christian Bakonyi presented the Ö1 (the ORF's cultural radio channel) Jazznacht on Saturday 19 September 2015, with Daniel Pepl, Agnes Heginger, Clemens Salesny and Martin Bayer in the studio. An archive find of the trio with Herbert Joos and Tony Oxley from Tamsweg was also played.

Media
26 October 2015

Ö1 honours Pepl on the National Day

Vienna

For the Austrian National Day, Ö1 (ORF’s cultural radio station) broadcasts the portrait „Heimat bis Du großer...“ in its “Spielräume” series, produced by Klaus Wienerroither. The title alludes to the national anthem: “In this case it really is one of the sons.” The programme spans Air Mail and the Jazzzwio, Benny Goodman and the ORF Big Band through to “Air, Love & Vitamins”.

Programme page at Ö1

Media
9 November 2015

Harry Pepl Prize for Viola Falb

Graz

On Monday, 9 November 2015, at the opening of the 24th Austrian Soundcheck (festival in Graz) in the Dom im Berg in Graz, Austria, the saxophonist and composer Viola Falb receives the fifth Harry Pepl Prize from gamsbART; the laudatory speech is given by Ute Pinter. The Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, and the NÖN, the regional weekly of Lower Austria, give 4,000 euros, the Falter 5,000 euros. The dating to 2016 by mica (Austria's music information centre) and Wikipedia is thus superseded. No later presentation is documented; Stefan Heckel dates the series up to 2015.

Honours
13 November 2015

Premiere of the “Tribute to Harry Pepl” at the Austrian Soundcheck

Graz

On Friday, 13 November 2015, Clemens Salesny, Martin Bayer, Peter Primus Frosch and Agnes Heginger present for the first time their programme with Pepl's late home-studio recordings at the Orpheum extra in Graz (Styria, Austria) during the 24th Austrian Soundcheck, on the tenth anniversary of his death. The Kronen Zeitung, Austria’s largest-circulation daily, wrote that they interacted with the master “as if he were sitting on stage”.

Concerts
5 December 2015

Double CD for the 10th anniversary of his death

Porgy & Bess, Vienna

On the initiative of Daniel Pepl, the double CD “Harry Pepl & Clemens Salesny / Martin Bayer / Peter Primus Frosch / Agnes Heginger” was released on Fullmax Recordings: Pepl's home-studio tracks, supplemented by live-recorded instruments. It was presented on Saturday, 5 December 2015, at 8.30 pm at the Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club), marking the 10th anniversary of his death in the year of his 70th birthday. On stage were Clemens Salesny (reeds), Martin Bayer (guitar), Peter Primus Frosch (drums) and Agnes Heginger (vocals), with guests Dominik Fuss (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Raphael Preuschl (bass); Harry Pepl took part through his multitrack recordings (guitar, guitar synthesizer, piano, vocals, drums). The live sets were based on the previously unreleased material of the Lonely Single Swinger Band, which Pepl had recorded instrument by instrument in his home studio in Hernstein, Lower Austria.

Estate
2016

“The Balsam Project” on “Faces And Stories”

On Wolfgang Puschnig's compilation, the duo with Pepl from the 1988 album “Pieces Of The Dream” was reissued.

Recordings
14 May 2016

INNtöne Jazz Festival 2016

Diersbach

Harry Pepl (tape) with Clemens Salesny, Martin Bayer, Peter Primus Frosch and Agnes Heginger played on Saturday, 14 May 2016, at the INNtöne Jazz Festival in Diersbach (Upper Austria, Austria). The four interpret Pepl’s pieces, improvise on them and respond to his recordings from his home studio, the programme of the 2015 double CD. Der Standard, a Vienna daily, announced the concert as a „formidables Beispiel“ [“formidable example”] of an engagement with history that can „delikate Ergebnisse zeitigen“ [“yield delicate results”].

Concerts
10 June 2016

“Pepl Reloaded” at the Bruckner University Linz

Linz

At the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, Austria, the “Harry Pepl Working Band” led by the singer and lecturer Agnes Heginger performs the evening “Pepl Reloaded”: students play Pepl’s compositions and improvise to his home-studio recordings of the Lonely Single Swinger Band, with Pepl heard on tape. The musicians include Stefan Bogensberger and Quang Huy Michael Vu (piano), Tao Deva Stingl (violin), Tobias Pöcksteiner (double bass), Michael Naphegyi and Raphael Schuster (drums), Lothar Beyschlag (trumpet), Klaus Trappl and Victoria Pfeil (saxophone), Sarah Koell (vocals) and Hasan Ibrahim (bouzouki).

Concerts
3 September 2016

Ö1 Jazznacht broadcasts the Pepl project from the INNtöne

Vienna

On Saturday, 3 September 2016, Christian Bakonyi's Ö1 Jazznacht broadcasts the recording from the INNtöne festival in Diersbach on 14 May 2016: Agnes Heginger, Clemens Salesny, Martin Bayer and Peter Primus Frosch playing live together with recordings by Harry Pepl.

Media
23 September 2016

“A tribute to Harry Pepl” at the Tischlerei Melk

Melk

At the invitation of the Jazzclub Melk, Clemens Salesny (saxophone), Martin Bayer (guitar), Peter Primus Frosch (drums) and Agnes Heginger (vocals) play with Harry Pepl's home-studio tracks on Friday, 23 September 2016, at 8 p.m. at the Tischlerei Melk Kulturwerkstatt in Melk (Lower Austria, Austria); the poster lists Pepl (†) on guitar, piano, vocals and drums. The preview in the regional press called him a “giant of improvisation”.

Concerts
24 September 2016

“Vienna Roomservice” at the Porgy & Bess

Porgy & Bess, Vienna

At the JazzWerkstatt Wien festival “Vienna Roomservice”, Clemens Salesny, Martin Bayer, Peter Primus Frosch and Agnes Heginger play as “Harry Pepl (Tape) & Salesny/Bayer/Frosch/Heginger” on Saturday, 24 September 2016, at 8.30 pm at the Porgy & Bess, the city’s best-known jazz club, in Vienna, Austria; Möström plays on the same evening.

Concerts
13 June 2017

“Pepl meets ProgRock” at the Kulturzentrum Hof in Linz

Linz

Almost two weeks before the evening at the Porgy & Bess, Vienna’s best-known jazz club, Agnes Heginger presents two ensembles of the Anton Bruckner Private University on Tuesday, 13 June 2017, at 8 pm at the Kulturzentrum Hof in Linz (Upper Austria, Austria), with a homage to Harry Pepl and to the progressive rock era of Yes, King Crimson and Genesis.

Concerts
26 June 2017

“Pepl meets ProgRock” at Porgy & Bess

Porgy & Bess, Vienna

The singer and lecturer Agnes Heginger brings two ensembles of the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz to Porgy & Bess, Vienna’s best-known jazz club: a tribute to Harry Pepl with “Pepl Reloaded”, „wilder und freier österreichischer Jazz mit und inspiriert von Harry Pepl“ [“wild and free Austrian jazz with and inspired by Harry Pepl”], plus progressive rock by Yes, King Crimson and Genesis.

Programme at Porgy & Bess

Concerts
27 October 2017

Gerald Gradwohl Group pays tribute to Pepl in Passau

Passau

The Passauer Neue Presse reported on Friday 27 October 2017 that the Gerald Gradwohl Group pays tribute to the late Viennese jazz guitarist, whom Gradwohl admires and from whom he has learned.

Honours
2018

New formation “Harry Pepl & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band”

Austria

Clemens Salesny and Martin Bayer, with Andi Schreiber on violin and Valentin Duit on drums, played a series of concerts with Pepl's material. Pepl's tracks came from their own stage amplifiers; Markus Wallner looked after the sound.

Ensembles
12 November 2018

Premiere of the Single Swinger Band at Porgy & Bess

Vienna

To open the concert series, Clemens Salesny, Martin Bayer, Andi Schreiber and Valentin Duit play with Pepl's tracks on Monday, 12 November 2018, at Porgy & Bess, the city’s best-known jazz club, in Vienna, Austria; Markus Wallner handles sound and playback.

Concerts
13 November 2018

Single Swinger Band at Tube's in Graz

Graz

On Tuesday, 13 November 2018, the quartet plays with Pepl's tracks at Tube's in Graz, Austria, as part of the Austrian Soundcheck festival. In the Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, Otmar Klammer wrote of a “multifaceted excursion through the Pepl cosmos” and called Pepl the band's real fifth man.

Concerts
15 November 2018

Single Swinger Band at the Brauhaus Breznik, Bleiburg

Bleiburg

On Thursday, 15 November 2018, the quartet plays with Pepl's tracks at the Brauhaus Breznik in Bleiburg, Carinthia, Austria.

Concerts
16 November 2018

Single Swinger Band at the Jazzit Salzburg

Salzburg

Under the title “A Tribute To Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band”, Clemens Salesny, Martin Bayer, Andi Schreiber and Valentin Duit play with Pepl’s tracks on Friday, 16 November 2018, at the Jazzit in Salzburg, Austria; Markus Wallner is on sound.

Concerts
22 February 2019

Digital EP “Lonely Single Swinger Band (Art of Trio, Vol. 1)”

Vienna

The first release from the musical estate on Fullmax Recordings since 2015: four newly mixed pieces that Pepl recorded alone in his home studio.

Estate
14 March 2019

Single Swinger Band at the Blue Tomato

Blue Tomato, Vienna

On Thursday, 14 March 2019, Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band plays at 8.30 pm at the Blue Tomato, a jazz club, in Vienna, Austria.

Concerts
25 October 2019 to 26 June 2021

Live recordings for the album “Live”

Vienna, Villach

The band recorded concerts at the Porgy & Bess (25 October 2019, July 2020), at the Blue Tomato (24 October 2020) and at the Bambergsaal Villach (26 June 2021). In August 2020 Franz Hautzinger played the trumpet on “Kunst II” in his home studio in France.

Recordings
25 October 2019

Single Swinger Band at the Porgy & Bess

Porgy & Bess, Vienna

Concert by Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band at the Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club); recordings from it were released in 2025 on the album “Live”.

Concerts

2020s

15 May 2020 to 10 June 2020

Digital releases from the estate on Fullmax Recordings

Vienna

In May and June 2020 the following were released digitally: “Consequence” (15 May), the double CD from 2015 (18 May), “Harry Pepl's Lonely Single Swinger Band (Volume One)” (20 May) and “N.Y.C. IMPRESSURE” (10 June).

Estate
15 July 2020

Single Swinger Band at the Porgy & Bess

Porgy & Bess, Vienna

Concert by Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band at the Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club); recordings from it were released in 2025 on the album “Live”.

Concerts
10 September 2020

Ö1 marks his 75th birthday

On Thursday, 10 September 2020, the day on which Pepl would have turned 75, Ö1 (ORF’s cultural radio station) marks the occasion in the music programme “Pasticcio” and plays “Air, Love & Vitamins”. The “Spielräume Special” on Harry Pepl follows on 25 September.

Media
25 September 2020

Ö1 “Spielräume Special” about Harry Pepl

Vienna

For the Ö1 (the ORF's cultural radio channel) programme, Daniel Pepl compiled a chronological list of listening examples with commentary. The date is taken from the file name of the list.

Media
24 October 2020

Single Swinger Band at the Blue Tomato

Blue Tomato, Vienna

Concert by Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band at the Blue Tomato, a jazz club, in Vienna; recordings from it were released in 2025 on the album “Live”.

Concerts
26 June 2021

Single Swinger Band at the Bambergsaal Villach

Bambergsaal, Villach

Concert by Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band at the Bambergsaal in Villach; recordings from it were released in 2025 on the album “Live”.

Concerts
31 July 2021

Festival de Chaillol: the Tortiller and Fitzgerald-Michel duo plays Pepl

Rambaud, Hautes-Alpes, France

At the 25th Festival de Chaillol in the Hautes-Alpes (France), the duo Franck Tortiller (vibraphone) and Misja Fitzgerald-Michel (guitar) play, on Saturday, 31 July 2021, to a full house, a piece by Harry Pepl alongside their own pieces and Monk’s “Bemsha Swing”, reports Le Dauphiné Libéré.

Concerts
25 September 2021

Les Arches en Jazz: Tortiller and Fitzgerald-Michel play “Air, Love and Vitamins”

Port-Bail-sur-Mer, Normandy, France

At the first “Les Arches en Jazz” festival in Port-Bail-sur-Mer (Cotentin, Normandy, France), the duo Franck Tortiller and Misja Fitzgerald-Michel play Pepl’s “Air, Love and Vitamins” on Saturday, 25 September 2021, at noon in the church of Notre-Dame; according to Citizen Jazz, a “gentle ballad” that leads into “a languorous meditation”.

Concerts
10 December 2021

Ö1 remembers the ORF Big Band

Vienna

For the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ORF Big Band, Ines Reiger and Klaus Wienerroither present a “Spielräume Nachtausgabe” on Ö1 (ORF’s cultural radio station) on Friday, 10 December 2021. The programme text names Pepl alongside Fritz Pauer and Erich Bachträgl among the important Austrian musicians who complemented the orchestra’s international quality „kongenial“ [“congenially”].

Media
30 September 2023

Concert in Syrnau

Syrnau

The band played on Saturday 30 September 2023 at 8.15 pm at the sparkasse.event.raum in Syrnau near Zwettl.

Concerts
15 December 2023

Ö1 Jazztime with Stefan Heckel

Vienna

At the RadioCafe of the Vienna RadioKulturhaus, Stefan Heckel presents his solo piano album live on Ö1 (ORF’s cultural radio station) on Friday, 15 December 2023, and talks with Johann Kneihs about his research into the method of instant composing, which ORF Teletext announces as that of the „großen Jazzgitarristen Harry Pepl“ [“great jazz guitarist Harry Pepl”].

Media
13 April 2024

Flip Philipp plays Pirchner and Pepl in Krems

Lower Austria

At the Salzstadl in Krems an der Donau (Lower Austria, Austria), the quartet of the vibraphonist Flip Philipp with Tobias Faulhammer, Stefan Bartus and Klemens Marktl plays the music of Werner Pirchner and his partner in the Jazzzwio, Harry Pepl, on Saturday, 13 April 2024, at the invitation of the association “That’s Jazz” and musik.aktuell.

Concerts
7 June 2024

“Live At H15 Studio” by the Kresten Osgood Quintet

Copenhagen

On the LP, featuring a live recording from the Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2023, the quintet plays Pepl's “The Halley's Comet Light Blue Blues”.

Recordings
July 2024

Stefan Heckel's dissertation “Instant Composing”

Vienna

Stefan Heckel submitted his dissertation on Pepl's late work at the mdw (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) in Vienna, Austria, supervised by Harald Huber.

Media
14 November 2024

Flip Philipp plays Pirchner and Pepl in Bruck an der Leitha

Lower Austria

At the invitation of the cultural association Freiraum, Flip Philipp (vibraphone) plays music by Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl at the Seidl-Keller in Bruck an der Leitha (Lower Austria, Austria) on Thursday, 14 November 2024, at 8 pm, with Bertl Mayer (harmonica), Tobias Faulhammer (guitar), Pista Bartus (bass) and Klemens Marktl (drums). The NÖN, the regional weekly of Lower Austria, afterwards writes of the „Ausnahmegitarristen Harry Pepl“ [“exceptional guitarist Harry Pepl”] and of an audience listening „teilweise mucksmäuschenstill“ [“at times as quiet as a mouse”].

Concerts
2025

The Kahr and Harms duo plays Pepl

Vienna

In the duo project “Jazz & the City (…and me)”, the pianist and jazz researcher Michael Kahr and the saxophonist Martin Harms interpret repertoire associated with musicians of Viennese jazz, among them Erich Kleinschuster, the Austrian jazz trombonist, Vera Auer, Fritz Pauer and Harry Pepl. In 2025 the duo performs at the Kultursommer Wien and records for Ö1 (the ORF's cultural radio channel).

Concerts
27 April 2025

“Air, Love & Vitamins” on the glockenspiel in St. Pölten

St. Pölten

In spring 2025 the glockenspiel on the town hall tower of St. Pölten, the capital of the Austrian state of Lower Austria, plays “Air, Love & Vitamins”, every day from 5.30 pm until the end of June, according to Harry Pepl's son Daniel Pepl. He films it on Sunday, 27 April 2025.

Works
11 June 2025

Jazz-Zwio 2.0 at the Treibhaus Innsbruck

Innsbruck, Tyrol

For Werner Pirchner’s 85th birthday, Matthias Legner (vibraphone) and Clemens Rofner (bass) play as “Jazz-Zwio 2.0” at the Treibhaus Innsbruck (Tyrol, Austria), twelve years after their first programme of Jazzzwio pieces.

Concerts
22 August 2025

Album “Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band: Live”

Vienna

The album was released digitally on Friday 22 August 2025 on Fullmax Recordings (distributed by Hoanzl); the distributor lists the CD with the date 26 September 2025. It contains concert recordings of the band playing to Pepl's original tracks.

Estate
6 September 2025

Ö1 Jazznacht for the 80th birthday

Vienna

Christian Bakonyi presented the Ö1 (the ORF's cultural radio channel) Jazznacht for the 80th birthday on Saturday 6 September 2025, with Daniel Pepl, Clemens Salesny and Martin Bayer.

Media
10 September 2025

80th birthday

Pepl would have turned 80 on Wednesday 10 September 2025. The press text for the album is titled “Harry Pepl 80”.

Life
22 September 2025

Nomination for the Austrian Jazz Award

Vienna

On Monday, 22 September 2025, the Austrian Jazz Award (award for jazz from Austria) announces its nominees: from 174 submissions, the Jazz Award Academy of 149 experts chose the album “Live” by Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band as one of the ten nominees for Best Album. The ranking is published on Monday, 27 October 2025, and the ceremony follows on 26 November in Velden.

Honours
28 September 2025

Concert at the Porgy & Bess

Vienna

The band, with Salesny, Bayer, Schreiber, Duit and Markus Wallner on sound, played at the Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club) in Vienna on Sunday 28 September 2025, also as a stream.

Concerts
26 October 2025

Death of Jack DeJohnette

Jack DeJohnette dies on Sunday, 26 October 2025, aged 83, in Woodstock (New York, USA). The APA report on his death states on Monday, 27 October, that Pepl was the only Austrian musician to record three albums with him in the 1980s; the Salzburger Nachrichten, a Salzburg daily, recall the recordings on ECM (the renowned European jazz label) with Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Pepl.

Media
26 November 2025

Austrian Jazz Award: 2nd place for “Live”

Velden

At the Austrian Jazz Award 2025 (award for jazz from Austria) at Casino Velden on Wednesday 26 November 2025, the album took 2nd place in the Best Album category, behind the Kenji Herbert Trio and ahead of the Tobias Meissl Trio.

Honours
16 December 2025

Single Swinger Band in the Open Music series at the Stockwerk in Graz

Stockwerk, Graz

Concert by Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band with Clemens Salesny, Martin Bayer, Andreas Schreiber, Valentin Duit and Markus Wallner on Tuesday, 16 December 2025, at 8 pm in the Open Music series at the Stockwerk in Graz, according to the Kleine Zeitung, a daily newspaper from Graz, the last Open Music concert of the year; the Kleine Zeitung and the Kronen Zeitung reported on Thursday, 18 December 2025.

Concerts
24 June 2026

Ö1 Radiosession with Michael Kahr and Martin Harms

Vienna

In the relaunched “Ö1 Radiosession”, Klaus Wienerroither talks on Wednesday, 24 June 2026, with the pianist Michael Kahr and the saxophonist Martin Harms; their duo project “Jazz & the City” is devoted to figures of jazz in Vienna, expressly including Harry Pepl. Ö1 (ORF’s cultural radio station) had announced the duo on 27 May 2026 among the first guests of the series, with repertoire „von Anton Karas bis Harry Pepl“ [“from Anton Karas to Harry Pepl”].

Media

1940s

Born in Vienna

1950s

First instrument: the accordion

1960s

The first guitar

Youth band with Blacky Brandstätter, Franz Handler and Karl Komarek

Wes Montgomery becomes a role model

Guitar studies with Karl Scheit

First record release: “Skinny Minny / Olymp”

The Austrian Evergreens

Member of the union for the arts and liberal professions

1970s

Studio musician in Vienna

ORF Big Band and studio work

Conception M

Television recording with Arik Brauer

Pepl as guitarist at the Musikverein: “Missa Criolla” with the Arnold Schoenberg Chor

The Jazzzwio begins with Werner Pirchner

Guest on Walter Richard Langer’s ORF TV series “Bourbon Street”

Harald Neuwirth Konsort and duo with Lee Konitz

Mumelter's Concertodrom

Mini festival at the HTL Saalfelden

Hip Jargon with Werner Pirchner at the Vienna Funkhaus

Teaching assignment at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG)

ORF Big Band: “Leave Me”

Premiere of Pirchner’s “Präludium und Fiasko”

Farewell to the ORF Big Band, move to Graz

With Marianne Mendt in Deutschlandsberg

Trio Infernal and journey to New York

Jazzzwio at the Jazzforum Mödling

Concert with Friedrich Gulda in Graz

Recording of “Austria Drei”

Guitar duo with Voja Brković at the Debrecen Jazz Days

ORF tapes of the Jazzzwio

Tour with the Vienna Art Orchestra

Recording of “Gegenwind”

1980s

Move to Hernstein

Guitar duo with Christy Doran in Switzerland

Concerts with the Vienna Art Orchestra

“Clown und Poet” on Bavarian Television

Recording of Runo Ericksson's Omnibus

Pirchner/Pepl Duo at the Festival for Contemporary Music in Neuwied

Jack DeJohnette sits in spontaneously at Saalfelden

Concerts with Benny Goodman in Berlin

The String Summit in Baden-Baden

Rome: soundtrack “Fantasma d'Amore”

Recording of “The Loss”

Jazzzwio at the Montreux Jazz Festival

Benny Goodman at the Tivoli, Copenhagen

Donaueschingen with the Vienna Art Orchestra

Recording of “Schattseite”

Jazzfest Berlin

Austria Drei in Graz

Jam session with Larry Coryell

ECM recording with Jack DeJohnette

Ars Electronica: “Jazz und Elektronik” (Jazz and Electronics)

Jazzzwio at the Student Centre in Zagreb

German Jazz Festival Frankfurt

Jazzzwio at ŠKUC in Ljubljana

Steirische Herbst Band at the ISCM World Music Days

The Jazzzwio opens the jazz series at the Kasper-Keller in Linz

Bratislava Jazz Days

Air Mail finds its line-up

At the 1st Musikfest Bleiburg

ECM album with “Air, Love & Vitamins”

“Daniel Humair and Friends” at the Théâtre de l'Atelier, Paris

International Jazz Session at the Musée d'art moderne, Paris

ORF “Ohne Maulkorb”

Full professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG)

Pirchner, Pepl, Di Pasqua concert in Salzburg

Jazzzwio in the Conservatory Hall, Innsbruck

Michel Portal Plus at the Angoulême jazz festival

Air Mail in Moers

NDR jazz workshop with the Family of Percussion in Hamburg

Portal Unit at the Schlachthof in Graz

Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw

Tenor Madness at the Festival de Jazz de Paris

Recording of “Prayer for Peace”