Chronology
Life and work year by year. Every entry is documented; we welcome additions and corrections.
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1970s
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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26 October 1979
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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
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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