Larry Appelbaum

Lawrence Allan Appelbaum (April 12, 1957 – February 21, 2025) was an American audio engineer and jazz historian. He was the Senior Music Reference Specialist in the Music Division of the Library of Congress, and hosted a jazz show (focused on bebop and post-bop) on WPFW called The Sound of Surprise for over 40 years. Appelbaum is most known for discovering tapes such as the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. He died in February 2025 due to complications of pneumonia.

Early life and education Larry Appelbaum working as a recording technician in the 1980s. Lawrence Appelbaum was born in Washington, D.C., on April 12, 1957, and attended Northwood High School and later the University of Maryland, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1979. His father, Melvin Appelbaum, owned clothing stores, and his mother, Estelle Appelbaum, was a homemaker. He had two older brothers: Howard and Marc Appelbaum. and became a DJ on WPFW in 1981.

Discoveries Appelbaum got his first job at the Library of Congress while still in college in 1979. It was released in 2005 through Blue Note Records. Sonny Rollins's sets were very short. He played with drummer Kenny Dennis and bassist Wendell Marshall. The tapes include Rollins's performance of "Moritat", "Sonnymoon for Two", and "Some Enchanted Evening." When Appelbaum found the Rollins tapes, he sent it to them to Rollins through his nephew, and got no response. Appelbaum later found out through an article on The New York Times that Rollins was planning to publish the tapes along with tapes from a recent show in Carnegie Hall, which Rollins had been inspired by Appelbaum's discovery to do. The New York Times described Masha Morozeva as his "longtime companion", though The Washington Post said they were divorced at the time of his death. Miyuki Williams, Appelbaum's coworker at WPFW, said that "his love for music was on display for all to see, radiating in every project he touched."