Monday, 19 October 2026
New sources: Debrecen 1979, steirischer herbst, Istanbul 1986
A Hungarian daily newspaper, the archive of the steirischer herbst festival and a Turkish jazz database document concerts by Harry Pepl between 1977 and 1986, among them an acclaimed guitar duo at the Debrecen Jazz Days in 1979.
At the 8th Debrecen Jazz Days, according to the local paper the largest representative jazz festival in Hungary, Harry Pepl played at midnight on Friday, 7 September 1979, in a duo with the Yugoslav guitarist Voja Brković. In the review in the Debrecen daily “Hajdú-Bihari Napló”, Gábor Turi ranked the duo among the festival’s top group and praised its virtuoso technique and perfect interplay.
The archive of the steirischer herbst, the festival of contemporary art in Styria, Austria, documents further evenings: in 1977 with the Austrian singer Marianne Mendt in Deutschlandsberg, in 1982 in the Steirische Herbst Band under Erich Kleinschuster, the Austrian jazz trombonist, at the World Music Days of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Graz, in 1984 with the Michel Portal Unit in the former slaughterhouse in Graz, and in October 1985 a trio with Daniel Humair and Jean-François Jenny-Clark as well as the last evenings of the Jazzzwio in Kindberg and Graz.
In Turkey, the database Bizim Caz lists two concerts at the 2nd International Bilsak Jazz Festival in Istanbul: on Friday, 26 September 1986, with Air Mail, and the following evening in the quintet of Enrico Rava and Dino Saluzzi, before the recording of “Volver”. Two US trade magazines add to this: in June 1981 Billboard announced Pepl’s evening at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and in March 1985 Cash Box reported the US release of the ECM album with Werner Pirchner, the Austrian composer and vibraphonist, and Jack DeJohnette.
All details are in the Chronology, under Festivals and venues and in the Press archive; the originals are available to signed-in users.