Press archive
What was written and broadcast about Harry Pepl: reviews, portraits, interviews and obituaries, with summary and source. The originals are protected by copyright and kept in the archive; we provide them to researchers and the press on request.
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17 December 1988 · Review · DE
Eßlinger Zeitung (weekend edition): „Perkussives“ (Joos, Pepl und Oxley)
Christa Wörner
Review of the year-end concert of the series “Jazz in der Dieselstraße” with Herbert Joos, Harry Pepl and Tony Oxley: catchy melodies and folk-song-like passages frame abstract structures, played with and against the electronics. By way of his guitar, Pepl also plays trumpet and piano and manages a drum solo on the guitar; Joos recalls Chet Baker, and Oxley shapes the European character of the music.
European jazz? The trio of Herbert Joos, Harry Pepl and Tony Oxley provided an example of it.
In this way Pepl managed to play a dazzling drum solo on the guitar.
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15 December 1988 · Review · DE
Stuttgarter Zeitung: „Jazz im Zauberspiegel“ (Dieselstraße: Joos-Pepl-Oxley)
lind
Concert review of the trio of Herbert Joos, Harry Pepl and Tony Oxley at the Dieselstraße culture and communication centre in Esslingen. The author begins with critical questions about volume, the playback tape and hidden themes and then describes a bewildering game of free jazz and balladic romanticism, in which the audience accepted Pepl’s guitar synthesiser as an enrichment; he refers to the record “Cracked Mirrors”.
accepted Harry Pepl’s guitar synthesiser as an imaginative enrichment of the sound
in a piece like “Schikaneders Delight” there was also quite definitely a Mozartean cheerfulness at play.
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22 April 1988 · Review · DE
daily newspaper (title not preserved): „Glanzvolle Dreieinigkeit“
Robert Urman
Review of the concert at the Posthof in Linz: the new trinity around Harry Pepl with Herbert Joos and Jon Christensen. Urman describes breathtaking string artistry, birdsong and synthetic flute sounds, lovingly coloured poetry down to a hint of Gil Evans, and an electronically generated fullness of sound on an orchestral scale. On the day of publication, a Friday, the trio was still playing at the Hotel Mader in Katsdorf.
Gems of contemporary jazz, wittily crafted by a top-class trio
The three offered breathtaking string artistry, virtuosically realised visions of wilful electronic mobilisation
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April 1988 · Review · DE
daily newspaper (title not preserved): „Versierte Gefährten“ (Musikantendreieck der Extraklasse im Posthof)
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Concert review of the appearance of Harry Pepl with Jon Christensen and Herbert Joos at the Posthof in Linz on 20 April 1988. The author praises the intensity, sensuality and sharpness of the compositions, the compellingly played solos and the astonishing use of electronics, and announces the trio’s forthcoming ECM (the renowned European jazz label) record. With a photo by Nöbauer.
Austrian jazz’s guitar great, of a standing that helps to set the tone not only in Europe
Harry Pepl brings electronics into play in an astonishing way.
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July 1986 · Review · FR
Jazz Hot, no. 432: „Amiens : le temps du jazz“
Franck Bergerot
Festival report by Franck Bergerot in the July/August issue of Jazz Hot, the French jazz magazine founded in 1935, on the “Le temps du jazz” festival in Amiens (France) from 13 to 24 May 1986, at which the festival also launched its record label, Label Bleu. Under the heading “Coup de chaleur” (roughly: a blast of heat) he describes Air Mail's concert: fired up by Wolfgang Puschnig, driven by Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger, shaken up by an utterly unexpected Harry Pepl. To Bergerot it sounded as if Pepl wanted to pay tribute to the guitarist Joseph Dejean, who had died ten years earlier; in his playing he found again the thread of a history of the guitar that he had thought lost. The music was free, fresh, uninhibited and full of energy, and he had not enjoyed himself so much in a long time. The report gives no date for the concert. Thirty-five years later Bergerot paid tribute to Pepl again in Jazz Magazine, as “the late Austrian jazz guitarist”.
Air Mail, fired up by Wolfgang Puschnig, driven by the rhythm section of Mike Richmond / Wolfgang Reisinger and shaken up by an utterly unexpected Harry Pepl.
Franck Bergerot in Jazz Hot on Air Mail's concert at the “Le temps du jazz” festival in Amiens, France, in May 1986, under the heading “Coup de chaleur” (roughly: a blast of heat)
There I found again the thread of a history of the guitar that I feared I had lost for good.
Franck Bergerot on Pepl's guitar playing at Air Mail's concert in Amiens, France, in May 1986; just before, he writes that had Pepl wanted to pay tribute to the guitarist Joseph Dejean, who had died ten years earlier, he could not have gone about it any differently
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July 1986 · Review · FR
Jazz Hot, no. 432: „Du jazz sous les pommiers“
Alain Guerrini
Festival report by Alain Guerrini in the July/August issue of Jazz Hot, the French jazz magazine founded in 1935, on the 5th Jazz sous les pommiers in Coutances (Normandy, France) from 3 to 10 May 1986. On the closing night, at the theatre, Guerrini discovered Air Mail with Wolfgang Puschnig, Harry Pepl, Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger as “un groupe prodigieux”, a prodigious group: from the Berlin ballad to hard rock, their music brought almost a century of music history back to life. As the most telling piece he names “Halley Comet”, probably Pepl's “The Halley's Comet Light Blue Blues”. The Eddy Louiss Big Band closed the evening. Jazz Hot names Puschnig as the band's leader; according to Daniel Pepl, Air Mail had no leader, and the statement is an error in the report. Guerrini gives 10 p.m. as the starting time, the festival archive 9 p.m.
There I discovered a prodigious group: Air Mail
Alain Guerrini in Jazz Hot on the closing night of the Jazz sous les pommiers festival in Coutances, France, on Saturday, 10 May 1986, Air Mail's first concert in France
“Halley Comet” is the most telling piece of this cosmic quartet.
Alain Guerrini on Air Mail's concert in Coutances, France, in May 1986; “Halley Comet” is probably Pepl's “The Halley's Comet Light Blue Blues”, later the title track of Air Mail's album “Light Blues” (1988)
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18 May 1985 · Review
The New York Times (Section 1, p. 10): „MUSIC: AUSTRIAN AVANT-GARDE“
John Rockwell
Review of the opening night of the festival “Beyond the Sound of Music: New Austria/New York” at the Ohio Theater in SoHo, at which the Jazzzwio with Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner performed together with the drummer Don Moye. Rockwell heard the first set, 40 minutes long, and found the music pleasant but not significant enough for the opening of a festival series; the evening began about an hour late. The Wednesday of the festival week was 15 May 1985.
relaxed and cool, in the ECM Records manner
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16 March 1985 · Review
Billboard (US-Musikfachzeitschrift mit den Branchen-Charts, gegründet 1894): Album Reviews, Jazz-Fusion: „Werner Pirchner / Harry Pepl / Jack DeJohnette“ (Recommended)
In its issue of Saturday, 16 March 1985 (vol. 97, no. 11), Billboard, the US music trade magazine founded in 1894 and home of the industry’s leading charts, reviews the ECM album (ECM 1237, via PolyGram Special Imports) on p. 66 in its Album Reviews under Jazz-Fusion and rates it “Recommended”, Billboard’s label for new releases the editors expect to chart in their format and for albums of superior quality. The unsigned capsule review calls Pirchner a mallet stylist, Pepl an acoustic guitarist and DeJohnette a timemaster, and describes a delicate, mood-rich chamber jazz record that recalls the strongest early productions in this vein by Manfred Eicher, founder and producer of ECM. At the same time, DownBeat presented the album on a full page in its April 1985 issue; this has its own entry in the press archive.
a delicate chamber jazz set rich in moods; recalls producer Eicher’s strongest early forays into this stream
Unsigned capsule review in the Album Reviews under Jazz-Fusion, rated “Recommended”, of the ECM album by Werner Pirchner, Harry Pepl and Jack DeJohnette; Manfred Eicher is the founder and producer of ECM
1983 date teaming mallet stylist Pirchner, acoustic guitarist Pepl and timemaster DeJohnette
Unsigned capsule review in the Album Reviews under Jazz-Fusion, rated “Recommended”, of the ECM album by Werner Pirchner, Harry Pepl and Jack DeJohnette
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18 February 1983 · Review · SL
Glasbena mladina (Slovenian music magazine): Nr. 5: „Plodna jazzovska jesen ’82 v Zagrebu“ (Fruchtbarer Jazzherbst ’82 in Zagreb)
Miro Križič
Review of the Zagreb jazz autumn of 1982 with the fourth International Jazz Fair from 11 to 15 October (with Martial Solal, Stan Tracey, Hans Koller and Joachim Kühn, among others) and further concerts. In the same month the duo Jazzzwio (printed “Jazzwio”) with Werner Pirchner (tenor vibraphone, marimba) and Harry Pepl (guitar) performed in the music salon of the Student Centre. Križič praises the combination of Pirchner’s prepared vibraphone and the modern guitar, which, he writes, created a wealth of musical ideas, rhythms and brilliant improvisations.
The combination of the prepared vibraphone, from which Pirchner drew incredible sounds full of vibrating sensitivity, and the modern guitar created a wealth of musical ideas, rhythms and brilliant improvisations.
Miro Križič in his review of the Zagreb jazz autumn of 1982 in the Slovenian music magazine “Glasbena mladina”, on the concert of the Jazzzwio of Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl in October 1982 in the music salon of the Student Centre in Zagreb, Croatia