Jazz on Record: A History

Retrospective primer on the technology and business of jazz recording.
Reviewed here.

There's a pretty good chapter on free / avant-garde jazz, but a lot of it bogs down in arcane record company machinations. I personally am really fascinated by stuff like arcane record company machinations, but I don't think the average person would be. As the title states, this book mainly focuses on the impact that key jazz records (LPs/CDs/cassettes) have had, not on live music.