2019 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll

Files at NPR, by Francis Davis (and others):

• The 2019 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll
• In the 2019 Jazz Critics Poll, the Fringe Has Its Moment at the Top

The results file at NPR stops at 50 new albums, 10 for reissues/historical, 9 or less for the other lists. Complete results are here:

• New Albums
• Reissues/Historical
• Debuts
• Latin
• Vocals

2019 Ballots by Voter

The 140 voter ballots are presented in batches of 20 ballots each:

• Ackerman - Chacona
• Chinen - Freeman
• Freitas - Holston
• Hull - Layman
• Leonard - Nicholson
• Niland - Smith
• Solomon - Yanow

The complete list of voting critics, with links to individual ballots, is here.

Notes

NPR's published results should be deemed official, but we're still double-checking everything and the definitive archival results here are still subject to change -- at least until this notice vanishes.

Methodology

Voters were asked to submit choices for their top 10 new releases in descending order. Points were weighted by preference: 10 for 1st place, 9 for 2nd place, etc., down to 1 for 10th place. Albums on unranked lists were awarded 5.5 points each.

Voters also submitted their top three reissues/historical recordings -- scored 3-2-1, or 2 each for unranked lists -- and their choices for the year's best vocal, debut and Latin jazz albums. To be eligible for reissues/historical, an album had to either have reissued music or previously unreleased music that had been recorded ten years or more ago. Every year some critics get confused on this and vote for a few records in the wrong category.

Critics were asked to refrain from voting for any CD in which they were directly involved as performer, producer, annotator, or in any capacity whatsoever.