ALL ABOUT US.....
About Larry Van Kriedt
Born in San Francisco in 1954, Larry was brought up in a musical family. His
father was the renowned jazz musician Dave Van Kriedt who composed,
arranged, played and recorded alongside such notable musicians as Dave
Brubeck, Paul Desmond and Stan Kenton. Larry himself began playing double
bass at age 9, guitar at 12 and added saxophone and vocals to the list at age
15. He studied jazz, harmony, composition and musical arrangement with his
father.
In 1969 the Van Kriedt family moved to Sydney, Australia. Here in his late
teens Larry began his professional career in music. One of his first studio
sessions was as the bassist in the original line-up of AC/DC in 1972. The
following two decades found Larry involved in playing bass, guitar and
saxophone and providing vocals to various styles of music, making many
albums both as an artist and as a producer. He has been a member of
and has frequently toured with Australian based bands 88s, Non Stop
Dancers and Def FX. Larry has written and recorded songs which have been
successful in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, USA and Europe.
Whilst in Australia Larry had the opportunity to work with musicians and
singers from various cultures and became interested in musical styles from
other parts of the world. He formed the band “Afram” with both Australian and
Moroccan musicians whilst still in Sydney. Between 1997 and 1999 Larry
and the other members of Afram travelled to and lived in Morocco. During
this time Larry absorbed elements of the musical culture of North Africa and
combined them with those of jazz and popular Western music to produce a
unique sound. “Afram” became popular in Morocco and many concerts were
performed on radio, television and live (such as the first Gnawa Festival in
Essouira in 1998). The band toured Spain, France and Germany and finally
UK where Larry has been based for over ten years.
In the early “noughties” Larry spent time playing jazz in cafes and “street
busking” in London, Paris and Provence. It was during this time, often as a
solo performer, that he developed a need and interest in making good quality
backing tracks for jazz standards. With this in mind, in 2002 Larry enrolled in
a business course in Sheffield using Jazzbacks.com as his study model. The
website, with hard work and dedication, has gone from strength to strength,
and now takes up many happy and satisfying hours of Larry`s time. He
produces, records and mixes all of the products for the tracks, playing and
singing himself on many of them. For other vocal and instrumental needs
Larry has built up an association of talented musicians and singers based
in the region. Recently Larry launched a sister website soulbacks.com to
accommodate backing tracks of a wider genre. He continues to insist on a
high standard of “real and live” elements when recording additional tracks on
either of the websites.
In his spare time Larry still enjoys performing live music. He plays jazz
and other styles of music as part of a duo or his own quartet. Larry also
accompanies other musicians, singers and bands. He currently lives in
Yorkshire, England.