Shanghai Jazz

Le Zhang and Coco Zhao with William Gottlieb's photograph of Ben Webster. Photograph by Larry Appelbaum

Thanks to Senior Music Specialist Larry Appelbaum for this post.

Chinese jazz singers Le Zhang and Coco Zhao recently visited the Music Division, where they were given an overview of the Library’s jazz collections by Senior Music Specialist Larry Appelbaum. They were especially taken by the scores of Charles Mingus and Gerry Mulligan, the Ella Fitzgerald arrangements by Nelson Riddle, a theoretical treatise by George Russell, and the photographs of William Gottlieb.

Both Zhang and Zhoa are based in Shanghai. In 2004, Zhang received a scholarship to study at the New England Conservatory. She is now doing post-graduate work at CUNY Queens College. Zhao is in New York on a Rockefeller Grant. They were brought to the Library by Washington D.C. pianist-composer Burnett Thompson.