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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10 September 2026 · Other · DE
Facebook (Thomas Palme): „...noch eine Harry Pepl Story zu seinem heutigen 81 Geburtstag“
Thomas Palme
Public Facebook post by the Viennese jazz and blues guitarist Thomas Palme for Harry Pepl's 81st birthday with a memory of an Air Mail concert (Wolfgang Puschnig, Mike Richmond, Wolfgang Reisinger) at the Titanic, a fashionable club at the time in the Theobaldgasse in Vienna, Austria, in the 1980s or early 1990s: when the power failed in the middle of the set, Pepl played a Wes Montgomery tune by candlelight, all alone and acoustically, and the room fell silent and reverent. Photo in the original post: Andreas Mayer.
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An anecdote that shows how deeply Pepl, despite his modern, highly virtuosic guitar playing, was also rooted in the jazz guitar tradition
to this day a very vivid memory of one of Austria's greatest jazz guitarists
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18 December 2025 · Review · DE
Kronen Zeitung (p. 42, culture): „Die Schemen eines Lebenden“ (Stockwerk Graz: Harry Pepl's Lonely Single Swinger Band blinzelt ins Jenseits)
F. Jureček
Concert review of the performance in Graz: a quintet around Clemens Salesny and the sound engineer Markus Wallner shapes an evening of improvisation from multitrack recordings by the guitarist, who died in 2005. Pepl’s audio tracks are heard as sounds dynamically processed at the mixing desk, with Andi Schreiber, Martin Bayer and Valentin Duit playing along.
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Archive material gives rise to the shadowy outlines of a living man.
Not many musicians release new CDs 20 years after their death.
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18 December 2025 · Review · DE
Kleine Zeitung (p. 51, culture, column „Open Music im Grazer Stockwerk“): „Im Spiel mit der Wiener Gitarristenlegende“
Robert Tendl
Report on the evening by Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band at the Stockwerk in Graz.
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Pepl left behind a great deal of material from his home studio; Salesny, Bayer, Schreiber, Duit and the technician Markus Wallner bring the audio tracks onto the stage via amplifier and loudspeakers and improvise along with them.
A surprisingly lively, highly musical result emerges
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26 November 2025 · Report · DE
Fullmax Recordings (Website): Beitrag zum Österreichischen Jazzpreis 2025, Best Album
Post on the album “Live” taking 2nd place in the Best Album category at the Austrian Jazz Award 2025 (award for jazz from Austria).
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The Jazz Academy consists of 149 experts, there were over 170 submissions and a seven-member expert jury; the award ceremony took place at Casino Velden.
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26 November 2025 · Radio · DE
Ö1, „On stage Spezial“: Österreichischer Jazzpreis 2025, live aus dem Casino Velden
Andreas Felber
Live broadcast of the award ceremony on Wednesday, 26 November 2025, 19:30. The playlist includes “Hernstein Blues” from the album “Live” (Pepl and Salesny, 8:10).
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November 2025 · Report · DE
ORF Kärnten (Online): Bericht über den Österreichischen Jazzpreis 2025
Report on the presentation of the Austrian Jazz Award 2025 (award for jazz from Austria) at Casino Velden, with the ranking in the Best Album category: Kenji Herbert Trio ahead of Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band and the Tobias Meissl Trio.
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28 October 2025 · Encyclopaedia · DE
mica music austria, music database: Harry Pepl
Database entry with biography, activities, awards, commissions, performance venues and a list of works (64 works); last updated 28 October 2025. The entry counts Pepl among the guitarists who have shaped Austrian jazz nationally and internationally, and records 2nd place at the Austrian Jazz Award 2025 (award for jazz from Austria).
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27 September 2025 · Review · DE
RONDO (Online): „Songs From The Treehouse“ (Tim Collins, Martin Gasselsberger)
Werner Stiefele
Review of the duo album by vibraphonist Tim Collins and pianist Martin Gasselsberger on GLM Music.
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Apart from Billie Eilish's “Everything I Wanted” and “Air, Love & Vitamins” from the repertoire of the Jazzzwio of Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner, the duo plays its own pieces; the reviewer places the line-up in the tradition of Gary Burton and Chick Corea.
“Air, Love & Vitamins” from the repertoire of the Austrian JazzZwio of Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner
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6 September 2025 · Radio · DE
Ö1, „Die Ö1 Jazznacht“: „Zum 80. Geburtstag von Gitarrist Harry Pepl“
Christian Bakonyi
Broadcast on Saturday, 6 September 2025, 23:03 to 24:00, with the guests Daniel Pepl, Clemens Salesny and Martin Bayer.
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The accompanying article mentions John Scofield and the MIDI guitar and points to the concert at Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club) on 28 September 2025.
In the 1980s Harry Pepl was one of the most sought-after guitarists in Europe.
The incredible improvisations and rapid cascades of sound, delivered in the most exciting way at the highest technical level, thrilled not only the audience in Montreux in 1981
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2025 · Other · DE
violafalb.com (Website Viola Falb): Biografie Viola Falb
Viola Falb
Biography on the website of the saxophonist and composer Viola Falb, covering her training, bands such as FALB FICTION and the saxophone quartet PHOEN, and a list of awards up to 2025. It lists the Harry Pepl Prize under 2016; the contemporary reports in Falter and NÖN document the award in November 2015.
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20 March 2024 · Interview · DE
mica music austria (Online): „Uns geht es darum, Gegensätze in unserer Musik zu manifestieren.“ (Raphael Preuschl, Fabulous Austrian Trio, im mica-Interview)
Michael Ternai
Interview with the bassist Raphael Preuschl on the 20th anniversary of the Fabulous Austrian Trio with Alex Machacek and Herbert Pirker.
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Speaking of Machacek's guitar playing, he says it seeks to lift the limits of a string instrument, and recalls Harry Pepl's piece “Man könnte Klavierspielen müssen”.
Harry Pepl once wrote the song ‘Man könnte Klavierspielen müssen’. I believe it is Alex's intention to lift the limitation of a string instrument and to take on the polyphonic freedom of a keyboard instrument.
Raphael Preuschl
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25 September 2020 · Radio · DE
Ö1, In Concert: „Fünf Österreicher und eine Cool-Jazz-Legende“ (Das Harald-Neuwirth-Konsort mit Lee Konitz 1976 im Wiener Funkhaus)
Helmut Jasbar (Gestaltung)
Programme with a historic concert document from the ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) archive: on 14 June 1976 the Harald Neuwirth Konsort performed in the Large Broadcasting Hall of the Vienna Funkhaus, with Harry Pepl (guitar), Werner Pirchner (vibraphone), Wolfgang Wüst (double bass) and Fritz Ozmec (drums) and the guest Lee Konitz. The programme was broadcast on 25 September 2020 at 14:05.
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The members of the ensemble were guitarist Harry Pepl, vibraphonist Werner Pirchner, double bassist Wolfgang Wüst and drummer Fritz Ozmec
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25 September 2020 · Radio · DE
Ö1, Spielräume Nachtausgabe: „Der unvergessene Jazzgitarrist Harry Pepl“
Klaus Wienerroither (Gestaltung)
Programme for his 75th birthday on 10 September 2020, broadcast on Friday, 25 September 2020, at 22:25 and repeated on 26 September 2020 at 00:05. Guests include the music producer Daniel Pepl, the drummer Wolfgang Reisinger and the pianist Anna Maurer, who is working on a solo piano album of Pepl’s compositions. According to the running order, recorded statements by Wolfgang Muthspiel and Guido Jesenzky on Harry Pepl as musician and as teacher were added. The music ranged from the Austrian Evergreens (1960) via Benny Goodman, the Jazzzwio, Air Mail, Michel Portal, Enrico Rava and the Kronos Quartet to the Fullmax releases of 2015 and 2020. Muthspiel requested “The Day We Know Paul Desmond Is Gone”, Jesenzky “Germ in A” (both Jazzzwio); Anna Maurer contributed her version of “Air, Love & Vitamins” (2020). Director: Daniela Fietzek, sound engineer: Georg Janser.
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His Austrian-American quartet Airmail was probably one of the best jazz groups of Austrian provenance.
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11 June 2020 · Report · DE
radiohoerer.info: „Harry Pepls ‚Hip Jargon‘ plus Werner Pirchner anno 1975“
Music tip on the blog radiohoerer.info (radio and media tips for new music, jazz and audio) for the programme “In Concert” on Ö1, the cultural radio station of the ORF (Austria's public broadcaster), on 5 June 2020. The post reproduces Ö1's programme text (presented by Helmut Jasbar): a recording from the ORF radio archive captures Pepl's trio Hip Jargon with Wayne Darling (double bass) and Fritz Ozmec (drums) on 25 September 1975 in the Large Broadcasting Hall of the Funkhaus in Vienna, Austria, with Werner Pirchner as guest on vibraphone. This lets Hip Jargon be heard as the nucleus of the Jazzzwio. The blog's playlist names three joint pieces by Pepl and Pirchner, among them “Pfifferling” and “Down At The Ticky Toe”; titles and durations differ from the Ö1 programme page, which is authoritative.
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“Free jazz for connoisseurs” was what a critic in the Salzburger Volksblatt, a daily newspaper in Salzburg, Austria, called it at the time.
the unpolished gem of a concert on 25 September 1975 in the Large Broadcasting Hall of the Vienna Funkhaus, the ORF's broadcasting house
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5 June 2020 · Radio · DE
Ö1, In Concert: „Harry Pepls „Hip Jargon“ plus Werner Pirchner anno 1975“
Helmut Jasbar (Gestaltung)
Programme with a concert recording from the ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) radio archive: on 25 September 1975 Pepl played in the Large Broadcasting Hall of the Vienna Funkhaus with his trio Hip Jargon (Wayne Darling, double bass; Fritz Ozmec, drums); the guest was Werner Pirchner on vibraphone. The programme calls Hip Jargon the nucleus of the Jazz-Zwio. The programme features “Wirf an” and “Wohl oder übel” by Pirchner as well as “Pfifferling”, “Squirrel Dance”, “Down At The Ticky Toe” and an excerpt from “Radler” by Pepl and Pirchner, almost 78 minutes in all.
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The nucleus of the famous “Jazz-Zwio”: Hip Jargon
The music has overwhelming impact, raw and direct, with a concentrated energy that makes the recording sound as if it had been made yesterday.
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13 February 2020 · Radio · DE
Ö1, Spielräume: „Werner Pirchner, der Vibrafonist“ (Musik aus allen Richtungen zum 80. Geburtstag des Tiroler Kosmopoliten)
Andreas Felber (Gestaltung)
Programme for Werner Pirchner’s 80th birthday on 13 February 2020. It describes the vibraphonist’s path and explains how the Jazz-Zwio with Harry Pepl brought the connection with the young Austrian jazz scene and the international career; the focus is on Pirchner.
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Meanwhile, Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner also joined forces with the young Austrian jazz scene