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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 [b]langarm[/b] 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 [b]Rock River Boys[/b]. Around 1961, Gary moved to Durban where he joined a group led by multi-instrumentalist Roy Petersen (father of drummer Bjorn Petersen) the [b]Roy Petersen Trio[/b]. 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 [b]Tony Schilder’s Trio[/b].