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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7 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Salzburger Nachrichten (p. 14, culture): „Gestorben: Harry Pepl“ (Rubrik „Gestorben“)
Obituary in the “Gestorben” (deaths) column: Pepl had long been regarded as one of the most independent and creative guitarists on the European jazz scene. It mentions the Zwio with Werner Pirchner, projects with Benny Goodman, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Dave Liebman, and real-time composing in the tradition of the Second Viennese School.
he had long been regarded as one of the most independent and creative guitarists on the European jazz scene
played with clichés of home in an original and sly way
In the “Zwio” with the composer and vibraphonist Werner Pirchner he disregarded musical conventions from the 1970s on and played originally and slyly with clichés of homeland.
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7 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Süddeutsche Zeitung (p. 17, arts section): „Verstummte Saiten“ (Zum Tod des Wiener Jazzgitarristen Harry Pepl)
Ralf Dombrowski
Obituary from Munich (Germany): the Graz Academy of Music appointed Pepl in 1977, the same year in which the Zwio with Werner Pirchner began to attract attention beyond Austria; years with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Dino Saluzzi, Charlie Mariano and Lee Konitz followed. Dombrowski describes a style with broad arcs of tension, unexpected harmonic progressions and clear, at times metallic sounds.
Students such as Wolfgang Muthspiel still count him among the most important driving forces in recent European jazz history.
In dialogue the two took the small chamber-jazz form to a previously unimagined communicative intensity.
He shaped a playing style which, with expansive arcs of tension, unexpected harmonic progressions and clear, at times metallic sounds, expanded the expressive range of his instrument melodically and rhythmically.
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6 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Kleine Zeitung (p. 55, culture): „Auch die 2. Hälfte vom ‚Jazzzwio‘ ist nicht mehr“
Michael Tschida
Obituary honouring Pepl as one of the jazz world’s “truly great”: from his first spurs in the ORF Big Band to appearances with Benny Goodman, Dino Saluzzi and Jack DeJohnette and the Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner, his “brother in spirit”. Tschida describes how Pepl revolutionised guitar technique with real-time composing and recommends listening to “Pepl/Pirchner live in Montreux '81”.
With the Vienna-born musician the jazz world loses one of the truly great
We were both equally crazy and liked trying out funny things.
On the Jazzzwio, his duo with the vibraphonist Werner Pirchner, known for its wit and humour on stage
Harry Pepl
I am often very cheerful and then very sad again. You can probably hear that in my playing too
A description of himself, quoted in the obituary in the Kleine Zeitung, a daily from Graz, December 2005
Harry Pepl
The comic in jazz was never more serious.
On the humour of the Jazzzwio, Pepl’s duo with Werner Pirchner
a truly great one, who began as a teenager with dance arrangements and at his peak revolutionised guitar technique with “real time composing”
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6 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
Kurier (p. 31, culture): „Harry Pepl gestorben“ (Rubrik „Überblick“)
Short obituary: after studying at the Vienna Academy of Music, Pepl quickly played his way into the first league of European guitarists. The Kurier sees his greatest period in the 1980s with the Pirchner-Pepl-JazzZwio, which because of its full sound bore the honorary title “jazz orchestra with two men”.
quickly played his way up into the first league of European guitarists
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6 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
OÖ Nachrichten (p. 22, culture): „Jazzer Harry Pepl gestorben“ (Meldung unter „Harry bleibt vorne“)
Short obituary that counts Pepl among the best guitarists of the present day and recalls Le Monde’s phrase “giant of improvisation”. It stresses that despite his international reputation Pepl remained loyal to regional jazz festivals in Upper Austria such as Raab; it wrongly gives a Vienna hospital as the place of death.
He was one of the best guitarists of our time and was often called a “giant of improvisation” (in Le Monde, among others)
Despite his international reputation he always remained committed and loyal to regional jazz festivals in Upper Austria (such as Raab).
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24 July 2002 · Portrait · DE
Falter (p. 55, culture): „Leiwand oder ned leiwand“ (Doppelporträt Muthspiel & Muthspiel und Jazzzwio)
Klaus Taschwer
Double portrait ahead of the premiere of the programme “Muthspiel & Muthspiel play Pepl/Pirchner” at the Glatt & Verkehrt festival. Wolfgang Muthspiel, who studied guitar with Pepl in Graz, remembers lessons “like an extended concert” and Pepl’s laconic verdict, either “leiwand” (Viennese for great) or “net leiwand”; for Christian Muthspiel the Jazzzwio came “like a liberation”.
Pepl was one of the most interesting guitarists in jazz. Great musicians like Dave Liebman or Jack DeJohnette say so too.
The guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, once Pepl’s student in Graz; the title of the Falter article, “Leiwand oder ned leiwand”, is Viennese for “great or not great”
Wolfgang Muthspiel
The lessons with him at the conservatory were like an extended concert.
Wolfgang Muthspiel
Pepl and Pirchner showed us that you can make exactly the music you want to make.
The trombonist and composer Christian Muthspiel on the Jazzzwio as a model for his generation; the title of the Falter article, “Leiwand oder ned leiwand”, is Viennese for “great or not great”
Christian Muthspiel
listening again now, I noticed once more how magnificently Pepl and Pirchner played. That was improvisation in the best sense.
Wolfgang Muthspiel
He played something to me, I had to play along, and every few bars he commented on how it was going. In his words that was, laconically, either ‘leiwand’ or ‘net leiwand’ [Viennese for ‘great’ or ‘not great’].
Wolfgang Muthspiel
The time I studied with Pepl was very formative. The lessons with him at the conservatory were like an extended concert.
Wolfgang Muthspiel
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15 August 2001 · Report · DE
Falter (p. 49, culture): „Leben nach dem Tod“ (Werner Pirchner, 1940 bis 2001)
Obituary of Werner Pirchner. It pays tribute to the Jazzzwio with Pepl as a duo successful far beyond Austria, with appearances at the festivals in Berlin and Montreux, duo records, a recording with Jack DeJohnette and the quartet Austria Drei with Adelhard Roidinger.
Above all, however, he formed with the guitarist Harry Pepl the “Jazz-Zwio”, which was successful far beyond Austria’s borders.