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: The Eighty Eights, 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. Larry also accompanies other musicians, singers and bands. He currently lives in Yorkshire, England.