In ‘At The Vanguard Of Vinyl,’ music scholar Darren Mueller delivers a deeply researched and vividly written cultural history of the long-playing record and its transformative impact on jazz. Out now, the book traces how the LP revolution of the late 1940s opened space for longer performances, extended improvisation, and new recording practices while remaining entangled in the power structures of a segregated music industry. By focusing closely on studio processes and production decisions, Mueller shows how artists like Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Charles Mingus used the LP format as a creative and cultural tool, shaping how jazz sounded, circulated, and signified modern Black life. 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.