Larry Van Kriedt

Larry Van Kriedt

Larry Van Kriedt - 2006
Background information
Born 1954
Origin United States
Genres Jazz, rock
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter
Instruments Saxophone, bass guitar, guitar
Years active 1963 - current
Associated acts AC/DC
Def FX
The Eighty Eights
Non Stop Dancers
Afram
The LPs
The Larry Van Kriedt Quartet

Larry Van Kriedt (born c.1954) was the first bassist with rock band AC/DC. He was recruited at the time of the group's formation in 1973, joining Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar), Angus Young (lead guitar), Dave Evans (lead vocals) and Colin Burgess (drums). Van Kriedt also played occasional saxophone.

Biography

Early life

Multi-instrumental Larry was born in San Francisco into a musical family. His father was the renowned jazz musician David van Kriedt who composed, arranged played and recorded with such giants as Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Stan Kenton and many more. All of Larry’s life has been centred on music, particularly jazz. He began playing the double bass at age 9, guitar at 12, and added saxophone and vocals to the list at 15. He studied jazz, harmony, composition and musical arrangement with his father.

In 1969, at age 15, his family moved to Sydney, Australia where he met Angus Young shortly after arrival. He started hanging out with Angus and his brother, Malcolm Young. Larry is described as being an accomplished jazz-influenced guitarist during this period. One of his first studio sessions was as the bassist in the original line-up of AC/DC in 1973.

With AC/DC

Van Kriedt was with the band for around four months, and after his departure in February 1974 he was replaced by Neil Smith. AC/DC employed a succession of bass players over the following few months, and Van Kriedt returned for a few days in January 1975 after Rob Bailey was fired. It was then decided that the role of bass player would be filled by Malcolm Young or older brother George Young until a more permanent solution could be found. That solution arrived in the form of Mark Evans in March 1975. Van Kriedt is also the only member in the group's history to be born in the US.

After AC/DC

Van Kriedt has played many different styles of music and has been involved with making many albums both as an artist and as a producer, and to this day he owns and operates his own recording studio. Bands Van Kriedt was a member of include: The Eighty Eights, Non Stop Dancers, Def FX, Afram, The LPs, and The Larry Van Kriedt Quartet. He has written and recorded songs that have been successful in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the U.S. and Europe, and has worked in North Africa and toured all over the world.

From 1997 to 1999, he lived in Morocco, working there as a musician with his band Afram doing radio, television and concerts such as the first Gnawa Festival in Essaouira in 1998, and raising money for the charity, B.A.Y.T.I. After leaving Morocco he travelled the world busking, that is, playing jazz on the street from London to Provence to Sydney. This was when he started making backing tracks of jazz standards.

In 2002, Van Kriedt pioneered the first online downloadable jazz playalong backing track e-business, Jazzbacks.com.

In 2007, he worked with Paul Agbakoba in The LPs.[1]

References

  1. ↑ "Jazz Musicians group Sheffield Latin Funk Soul Jazz". The LPs. Retrieved 2011-08-20.

Further reading

External links