Skip to content
Harry Pepl * 1945  † 2005
Contact Sign in
Cover: Werner Pirchner / Harry Pepl / Jack DeJohnette

Cover: ECM Records

Band · 1980 to 1982

Werner Pirchner / Harry Pepl / Jack DeJohnette

The ECM trio with Jack DeJohnette

Guitar, vibraphone and Jack DeJohnette on drums: in June 1982 Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl recorded an album for ECM with the American drummer, released in 1983. It contains Pepl's “Air, Love & Vitamins”, which is regarded as an Austrian jazz standard, and gave the two of them, in Pepl's words, their first look „über die Mauer“ [“over the wall”].

Harry Pepl Co-leader, Ovation guitar

Releases Questions and answers

At a glance

Line-up
Werner Pirchner (tenor vibraphone, marimba), Harry Pepl (Ovation guitar), Jack DeJohnette (drums)
First appearance as a trio
September 1980, Saalfelden Jazz Festival
Recording
June 1982, Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg
Producer
Manfred Eicher
Release
ECM 1237, 1983; digitally remastered 2019
Best-known piece
Air, Love & Vitamins (Harry Pepl)

How the trio came about

In September 1980 the Jazzzwio was playing at the jazz festival in Saalfelden (major jazz festival in the Salzburg region) when Jack DeJohnette spontaneously came on stage and joined in. A few months later, at a concert at the Jazzspelunke in Vienna, Pirchner and Pepl set up a drum kit as a precaution because DeJohnette was in town, and he really did come.1 The contact with ECM came about through the festival in Ancona. Manfred Eicher, who had turned down “Gegenwind” about two years earlier, now offered a recording.2

The recording

The recording took place on a Sunday afternoon in June 1982 at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, with Manfred Eicher as producer. The evening before, Pirchner and Pepl had still been playing at the festival in Neuwied and had driven to Ludwigsburg overnight.3 Pirchner played tenor vibraphone and marimba, Pepl the Ovation guitar. The pieces come equally from both of them; Pepl himself called the line-up „Jazzzwio und noch wer“ [“Jazzzwio and somebody else”].4 On the back of the record the two thanked “Brother Jack”.

Air, Love & Vitamins

Pepl's piece “Air, Love & Vitamins” was very important to him personally: a sweet, simple song that really called for a singer or a saxophone.5 It is regarded as an Austrian jazz standard; Wolfgang Muthspiel named an album after it in 2004.

Impact

The album was released in 1983 as ECM 1237. Nikolaus Kohler names an award in the quarterly list of the German Record Critics' Award 1983 (German award for outstanding recordings, chosen by a jury of critics), while the Österreichisches Musiklexikon speaks of a nomination.6 In 2007 Deutschlandfunk (Germany's national public radio station) played it in a programme about Harry Pepl from its series on classics of jazz history, and in 2019 it was released digitally remastered.7

Notes and sources (7)
  1. Kohler 2006, p. 82. ↩
  2. Kohler 2006, pp. 78 to 79, 82. ↩
  3. Kohler 2006, pp. 78 to 80. ↩
  4. Kohler 2006, p. 82. ↩
  5. Kohler 2006, p. 82 (interview 4-44). ↩
  6. Kohler 2006, p. 79; Österreichisches Musiklexikon online, article “Pepl, Harry”. ↩
  7. Deutschlandfunk, “Milestones”, 13 March 2007; streaming edition, ECM 2019. ↩

Voices

This is the first time that we are really looking over the wall

In 1983, on the Jazzzwio’s ECM album with Jack DeJohnette, the American drummer known from Miles Davis’s and Keith Jarrett’s bands

Harry Pepl On the ECM album with Jack DeJohnette; interview “Erster Blick über die Mauer”, Jazzlive no. 1, July 1983, p. 7, quoted in Kohler 2006, p. 82

It is a really sweet song with a sweet, simple melody that actually calls for a voice or a saxophone, something that comes along in long notes.

On his ballad “Air, Love and Vitamines”, written for the duo with Werner Pirchner

Harry Pepl On “Air, Love and Vitamines”; conversation with Nikolaus Kohler (Interview 4-44), quoted in Kohler 2006, p. 82

Releases

Listen and watch

A selection of Harry Pepl on Spotify, not only from this project.

To listen, a Spotify player is loaded. Data is transferred to Spotify in the process.

Open on Spotify

Questions and answers

When was the album by Pirchner, Pepl and DeJohnette made?

On a Sunday afternoon in June 1982 at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, produced by Manfred Eicher. It was released on ECM in 1983 under the number 1237.

How did Jack DeJohnette come to Pirchner and Pepl?

He joined the Jazzzwio spontaneously at the Saalfelden Jazz Festival (major jazz festival in the Salzburg region) in September 1980 and a few months later also played at the Jazzspelunke in Vienna. After that ECM (the renowned European jazz label) offered a joint recording.

Is “Air, Love & Vitamins” on this album?

Yes. Harry Pepl's piece is regarded as an Austrian jazz standard; Wolfgang Muthspiel named an album of his own after it in 2004.

Where is the album available?

ECM (the renowned European jazz label) lists the LP and CD as out of print; since 2019 a digitally remastered version has been available on streaming services.

In the chronology

In the press

All 10 press items on Werner Pirchner / Harry Pepl / Jack DeJohnette