New sources on France

New finds shed more light on Harry Pepl's years in France. The archive of Banlieues Bleues, the jazz festival in the Seine-Saint-Denis département near Paris, lists him on Friday, 7 March 1986, with Michel Portal, Jack DeJohnette, Mino Cinelu and Jean-François Jenny-Clark in Montreuil. In May and June 1986 Air Mail toured France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria: on Saturday, 10 May, the band played at the Jazz sous les pommiers festival in Coutances (Normandy), according to the programme text its first concert in France, on Wednesday, 14 May, at the Paris jazz club New Morning, as well as at the jazz festival in Amiens and on Thursday, 19 June, at the Hotel Sonne in Landeck (Tyrol, Austria). The Bibliothèque nationale de France, France's national library, holds Portal's albums “Turbulence” and “Men's Land” with Pepl as LP, cassette and CD, partly available to listen to digitally on site; the shelfmarks are given on the album pages. In Jazz Magazine, Franck Bergerot called Pepl “the late Austrian jazz guitarist” in 2021. There is also a correction: according to the festival's archive, Air Mail played at the Moers Festival not in May but on Whit Monday, 11 June 1984. All details are in the Chronology, under Festivals and venues and in the Press archive.