Chronology
Life and work year by year. Every entry is documented; we welcome additions and corrections.
Filters active
1980s
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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March 1985
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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24 May 1986
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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21 January 1989
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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