FAREWELL LARRY APPELBAUM

Larry Appelbaum in the Performing Arts Reading Room at the US Library of Congress. Photo: LOC Blogs

We commemorate the life and legacy of Larry Appelbaum (April 21, 1957 – February 21, 2025) who, among other roles, was for many years the Jazz Specialist at the United States Library of Congress, where the Charles Mingus Collection has been housed since 1993, containing nearly all of the composer’s sheet music manuscripts in addition to photographs, awards, business papers, personal effects, and much more. We are grateful for his careful stewardship of Mingus Music, working with Jazz Workshop and Sue Mingus in our efforts to help scholars and musicians access the Collection. One of Larry’s email addresses was “jumpmonk”, paying homage to the Mingus composition of the same name, and, in turn, to Thelonious Monk.

Some excellent summaries of Applebaum’s career can be found at the following links:

• In Appelbaum’s retirement announcement dated April 2020, published by In The Muse, the blog of the Library of Congress Performing Arts division.

• In Willard Jenkins’ obituary for JazzTimes magazine

• Downbeat obituary

Larry Appelbaum standing among floor-to-ceiling shelves of reel-to-reel tapes, holding a box on display. Photo: Marcus Ratka, 2017