Larry Applebaum (1957–2025)

Music archivist. The New York Times has an obituary.

Larry Applebaum is best known for discovering the 1957 Voice of America recording released in 2005 as Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. That release roughly doubled the recorded legacy of Monk and Coltrane playing together.

I wrote a rave review of the CD when it was released. What I wrote then still holds true: “The music preserved in this recording ... is, by any standard of performance, extraordinary.”