Garry Kriel

South African musician who started their careers way back in the ’50s when he played his first gig as an 11-year-old in his cousin’s langarm group played the accordion. By the time he was in his teens, Gary was already familiar with the piano, the guitar and the accordion he became something of a multi-instrumentalist – but mainly strings: guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele. After playing langarm gigs – he even played langarm with the legendary Stan Lombard’s group – he joined a group called the Rock River Boys. Around 1961, Gary moved to Durban where he joined a group led by multi-instrumentalist Roy Petersen (father of drummer Bjorn Petersen) the Roy Petersen Trio. Gary played up north for almost 15 years before coming back to Cape Town where he found regularly gigs around town with various groups, but mostly with Tony Schilder’s Trio.