Press on Benny Goodman
What was written and broadcast about Harry Pepl and Benny Goodman: reviews, portraits, interviews and obituaries, with summary and source.
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5 February 2024 · Portrait
European Jazz Masters Of The Past (Blog): „European Jazz Masters Of The Past #2: Harry Pepl“
Wulf Müller
Detailed biographical essay by the former producer at PolyGram Austria and co-founder of “Jazz Live”, with photographs from the family collection. Müller first met Pepl in 1984 at an Air Mail concert in Vienna. He describes the Jazzzwio and the time with Benny Goodman, the making of the “Schönberg Improvations”, whose idea Pepl brought to his office, and the solo piano record “Flow” from 1996, recorded without corrections. Some biographical details, such as his birth and the start of his teaching in Graz, differ from the documented sources.
a very humble, charismatic and private person with a great sense of humour. Someone who was constantly looking for new ideas
While Harry was building his reputation as one of Europe’s most interesting and unique guitarists
He swings like hell
Harry Pepl on Benny Goodman
Musically, I still find this album exciting, challenging and powerful.
Harry sat down at the piano, which he never really learned to play, nor practised, and plays, let’s the music flow through him.
After a few moments I don’t feel time anymore. An emotion of happiness floats through me and the sounds stream on their own
Harry Pepl
the most spectacular record of one of the most original guitar players of European Jazz in those years
Andreas Felber
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12 December 2005 · Obituary · DE
NÖN Niederösterreichische Nachrichten (p. 38, Triestingtal): „Tiefe Trauer um Harry“
Obituary in the Triesting valley edition on the day of the funeral: Pepl shaped Austrian jazz nationally and internationally like hardly anyone else and created a jazz idiom that can be called European. It mentions Benny Goodman, Dave Holland, Dino Saluzzi, Dave Liebman and Mino Cinelu, instant and real-time composing, and the lying in state, requiem and burial in Hernstein; the paper wrongly gives his age as 61.
He shaped and influenced Austrian jazz, nationally and internationally, like hardly anyone else.
Harry Pepl shaped a jazz idiom which, in its uncompromising direction and its phrasing in waves over a steady pulse, can be called European.
The only thing essential for the synthesis of the temporal and the timeless to succeed is the fulfilled moment!
On Real-time Composing, quoted in the obituary in the NÖN, the regional weekly of Lower Austria, December 2005
Harry Pepl
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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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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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10 February 1998 · Interview · DE
Wiener Zeitung (p. 4, column „Jazzignal“): „Echtzeitkompositionen“
Christian Rösner
Portrait with interview on the piano album “Flow” (PAO Records). After a break for health reasons, Pepl has made the piano his instrument and developed his real-time composing further. He tells how for the recording he sat down in a Vienna concert hall (the article names the Bösendorfer hall), played a note and let himself be guided by the acoustics, and recalls an unprepared festival concert with Jack DeJohnette.
The guitarist and composer Harry Pepl may well be called Austria’s most independent and at the same time most uncompromising jazz voice.
What mattered to me was to play music that really comes from within and that happens in the moment
In 1998, on Real-time Composing at the piano
Harry Pepl
I played one note, then the second, and by the third at the latest Jack knew exactly where I was, and we were together.
On a festival concert with Jack DeJohnette without any joint preparation, in conversation in 1998
Harry Pepl
Pepl’s flowing real-time compositions on “Flow” are in any case full of energy and honesty; understandable in expression and eloquent.
Music is my life, and I cannot not play
In conversation with the Wiener Zeitung, a Vienna daily, 1998
Harry Pepl
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26 July 1994 · Report · DE
Kronen Zeitung (p. 18): „Musikalischer Grenzgänger lehrt an ‚NÖ Jazzakademie‘“
initials „D. S.“
Preview of the sixth Lower Austrian Jazz Academy at Zeillern Castle (31 July to 6 August 1994), a further-training seminar for aspiring professional musicians. Pepl is introduced as the most prominent teacher; with his quartet he plays the opening concert on Sunday, 31 July, at 9 pm.
Guitarist and composer Harry Pepl is regarded as a musical border-crosser and has played with jazz greats such as Benny Goodman, Dave Holland, Dave Liebman and Jack DeJohnette.
The top-class musician will also play the opening concert with his quartet on 31 July from 9 p.m.
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15 November 1980 · Other · DE
Brief aus Bangkok: „Benny Goodman war nach dem 2. Konzert voll des Lobes“: Brief an Harry Pepl nach den Berliner Goodman-Konzerten
Kurt A. Müller
Typewritten letter from Bangkok to Harry Pepl in Hernstein, a week after the concerts with Benny Goodman at the Berlin Philharmonie (7 and 8 November 1980). According to the family archive, the sender was Goodman's manager Kurt A. Müller, the Swiss friend of Goodman living in Bangkok who co-organised the concerts, chose the musicians in Europe and made the recordings. He reports that Goodman was full of praise after the second concert; during Pepl's solo at the start of the second concert Goodman got going as he had not done for years, and the whole quintet jammed as in Goodman's early years. Goodman's only regret was that Pepl did not play an acoustic guitar. Full text (translated from the German, address omitted): “Mr Harry Pepl, [address], 2560 Hernstein, Lower Austria. 15 November 1980. Dear Mr Pepl, My wife and I have now arrived safely back in Bangkok and still think back often and fondly to the swinging days in Berlin. After the second concert Benny Goodman was full of praise for you and your colleagues. I myself was also glad that everything went so well, because whoever plays with Benny Goodman has to be good, otherwise things can get uncomfortable, since Benny is an absolute perfectionist and demands a great deal of perfection from his musicians too. When you took off with your solo at the start of the second concert, Benny really got going, in a way I had not seen him for many years; Charly, Peter and Don Haas swung along and the whole quintet ‘jammed’ as was only the case in Benny Goodman's early years. He confirmed this to me afterwards too and was in the best of moods. The only thing he regretted was that you did not have a natural guitar, because he would have liked that even better, he said, but it was fine as it was. So once again many thanks for your fine contribution, it was truly a delight for all of us, and the audience went wild, as you can hear again on the tape recordings. The photos are being copied and I will send them to you in a few days. I would be glad to hear from you soon; perhaps you could send me a tape on which you play swinging music, I would then copy it for Benny, if you allow. Warm regards, also from my wife, and all the best. Yours, [signature]”
After the second concert Benny Goodman was full of praise for you and your colleagues.
When you took off with your solo at the start of the second concert, Benny really got going, in a way I had not seen him for many years
Letter from Kurt A. Müller, manager of Benny Goodman, the “King of Swing”, after the second concert at the Berlin Philharmonie in November 1980