At the Vanguard of Vinyl

“Darren Mueller gives us a fresh take on jazz recordings that fundamentally transforms the way we think about jazz improvisation and the relationship between jazz musicians and recording technologies, as well as our assumptions about how gender, race, and music inform record production. A profound reconception of jazz historiography, At the Vanguard of Vinyl forces us to confront our deepest-held notions about jazz through close attention to the musicians and record-industry personnel who shaped the ways in which we hear and appreciate the music.” - Kevin Fellezs, author of Birds of Fire: Jazz, Rock, Funk, and the Creation of Fusion

“In this brilliantly researched and sophisticated work, Darren Mueller presents a genealogy of the jazz LP as it became canonized as the music’s familiar and durable mode of presentation on record. His advocacy for understanding recordings as fixed moments of culture and freedom work and, at the same time, as evolving points of relation in a still emergent Afro-modernity is most compelling. Offering a much-needed intervention in African American studies, jazz studies, music history, and sound studies, At the Vanguard of Vinyl is a game changer for anyone who considers recordings as a site for interrogating technological change and cultural politics.” - Charles F. McGovern, author of Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890–1945

"This excellent title embraces art, technology and economics. Its accessible scholarship changes our understanding of a familiar artefact. . . . Mueller's title is one of my jazz books of the year, for sure." - Andy Hamilton, The Wire

"The breadth and depth of his research is exemplary. This book is suitable for academic libraries with significant music collections. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." - Choice

"Darren Mueller astutely traverses the history of the LP in At the Vanguard of Vinyl, explaining how a medium that brought recordings of live classical and jazz performances into the homes of music lovers became the palette for geniuses like Mingus and Miles to stretch their wings." - Adam Perry, Boulder Weekly

". . . Mueller has made a great contribution to jazz scholarship and to media studies. He offers a new method of analysis for the original issues of mid-century jazz music. . . . He supplies the reader with excellent discographies of the original LPs he examined and a long bibliography of jazz and media-studies publications underlying and supporting his analyses. Any library supporting those areas of research should acquire At the Vanguard of Vinyl." - Matthew Snyder, Notes

"The volume is exhaustively researched by an author of intelligence and passion who provides illuminating moments and invaluable information. . . .  At the Vanguard of Vinyl is a worthy read." - Terrell K. Holmes, New York City Jazz Record

"At the Vanguard of Vinyl represents an original and nuanced take on the course of post-war jazz." - Andrei Pohorelsky, College Music Symposium

"The book moves with precision and insight, turning grooves and playback time into evidence, and leaves a clear impression of how recorded sound helped redraw the boundaries of American music and meaning." - Eric Alper