16th Annual Jazz Critics Poll: 2021

2021 Music Jazz Critics Poll

Essays

Complete Results

2020 Ballots by Voter

The 156 voter ballots are presented in batches of 20 ballots each:

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

Notes

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.