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Harry Pepl * 1945  † 2005
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Cover: Tango From Obango

Cover: Art Records / Extraplatte

Band · 1979 to 1981

Vienna Art Orchestra

Harry Pepl as a guest, 1979 to 1981

From 1979 to 1981 Harry Pepl played as a guest in the Vienna Art Orchestra of Mathias Rüegg: on the album “Tango From Obango”, on tours of Austria and Switzerland and, in 1981, at the Donaueschingen Music Days (festival of contemporary music). In the orchestra he met Wolfgang Puschnig, Wolfgang Reisinger and Herbert Joos; these connections later gave rise to the band Air Mail and the trio of “Cracked Mirrors”.

Harry Pepl Guest guitarist

Releases Questions and answers

At a glance

Leader
Mathias Rüegg (composition, arrangement)
Album
Tango From Obango, recorded on 22 and 23 November 1979 (Art Records / Extraplatte)
Tours
November 1979 (Austria), March 1980 (Vienna, Zurich, Basel), June 1980 (“Concerto Piccolo”)
Donaueschingen
17 October 1981, “Johnny tritt ab”, with John Surman as guest
In the orchestra
including Lauren Newton, Wolfgang Puschnig, Harry Sokal, Herbert Joos, Werner Pirchner, Wolfgang Reisinger

Tango From Obango

Mathias Rüegg had founded the Vienna Art Orchestra in 1977, together with Wolfgang Puschnig and Woody Schabata.1 The album “Tango From Obango” was made on 22 and 23 November 1979, named “Wiener Art Orchester” on the cover. The orchestra at that time included Lauren Newton (voice), Wolfgang Puschnig, Harry Sokal, Herbert Joos, Christian Radovan, Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, Uli Scherer, Jürgen Wuchner, Fritz Ozmec, the Austrian jazz drummer, and Wolfgang Reisinger, among others. Pepl can be heard on the piece “The World of BeBand & BigBop”.2

Tours and Donaueschingen

In November 1979 the orchestra toured Austria, from Steyr to the Münzgraben in Graz; in March 1980 it played in Vienna, Zurich and Basel; in June 1980 the “Concerto Piccolo” followed, in Vienna, Braunau, St. Gerold, Innsbruck and Oberwart, among other places.3 The last traceable collaboration was the “No Jazz Opera” “Jonny tritt ab” at the Donaueschingen Music Days on 17 October 1981, with John Surman as guest and the singers Karin Krog, Lauren Newton and Maggie Nicols; Kohler gives 1982, the festival archive 1981.4

A meeting point

For Pepl the orchestra was above all a pool of musicians who afterwards went on playing in smaller groups. Puschnig and Reisinger became his partners in Air Mail, Herbert Joos his partner on “Cracked Mirrors”.5

Notes and sources (5)
  1. Kohler 2006, p. 46. ↩
  2. Kohler 2006, pp. 45 to 46. ↩
  3. Kohler 2006, pp. 46 to 47. ↩
  4. Kohler 2006, p. 47. ↩
  5. Kohler 2006, p. 47 (interview 4-53), p. 90, p. 113. ↩

Voices

The Art Orchestra was open as a band, there was a lot of room, even though some things were written out too. It was ace to play along.

“Leiwand” is Viennese slang for “great”. On the Vienna Art Orchestra, the Viennese jazz big band led by Mathias Rüegg

Harry Pepl On the Vienna Art Orchestra; conversation with Nikolaus Kohler (Interview 4-50), quoted in Kohler 2006, p. 47

It actually came about through the Art Orchestra that we played together more and more.

On how the quartet Air Mail grew out of the Vienna Art Orchestra, the Viennese jazz big band led by Mathias Rüegg

Harry Pepl On Air Mail; conversation with Nikolaus Kohler (Interview 4-53), quoted in Kohler 2006, p. 47

Releases

Questions and answers

When did Harry Pepl play in the Vienna Art Orchestra?

From 1979 to 1981 as a guest: at the recording of “Tango From Obango” in November 1979, on tours in 1979 and 1980 and on 17 October 1981 in Donaueschingen.

On which recording can Pepl be heard with the orchestra?

On “Tango From Obango”, in the piece “The World of BeBand & BigBop”.

What did the orchestra mean to Pepl?

It was a meeting point: here he met Wolfgang Puschnig, Wolfgang Reisinger and Herbert Joos. Pepl said the band Air Mail had actually come about through the Art Orchestra.

In the chronology

In the press

All 6 press items on Vienna Art Orchestra