Full Description
In At the Vanguard of Vinyl, Darren Mueller examines how the advent of the long-playing record (LP) in 1948 revolutionized the recording and production of jazz in the 1950s. The LP's increased fidelity and playback capacity allowed lengthy compositions and extended improvisations to fit onto a single record, ushering in a period of artistic exploration. Despite these innovations, LP production became another site of negotiating the uneven power relations of a heavily segregated music industry. Exploring how musicians, producers, and other industry professionals navigated these dynamics, Mueller contends that the practice of making LPs significantly changed how jazz was created, heard, and understood in the 1950s and beyond. By attending to the details of audio production, he reveals how Black musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Charles Mingus worked to redefine prevailing notions of race and cultural difference within the United States. Mueller demonstrates that the LP emerges as a medium of sound and culture that maps onto the more expansive sonic terrain of Black modernity in the 1950s.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. The LP Goes Live 1
1. Do the Huckle-Buck: Jazz and the Emergent LP, 1949 to 1955 35
2. Mistakes, Mishaps, and Miscues: The Early LPs of Prestige Records 75
3. Quest for the Moment: The Audio Production of Ellington at Newport 122
4. World Statesman: the Ambassadorial LPs of Dizzy Gillespie 152
5. Capturing the Scene: The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco 191
6. Mingus Ah Um: The Avant-Garde Making of Charles Mingus 230
Conclusion. Jazz as a Culture of Circulation 270
Notes 281
Discography 377
Bibliography 395
Index 413
