Francis Davis Jazz Poll

Back in 2006, Francis Davis decided to poll a circle of critics "currently living in New York and/or writing for New York-based publications" to supplement his own end-of-year list and essay in The Village Voice. Thus began an annual poll, which has grown from its its initial 30 critics to 156 in 2021. Davis continued to run the Jazz Critics Poll up through 2021, keeping it going after he left the Voice in 20??, finding sponsors from Rhapsody, NPR (-2021), and ArtsFuse (2021).

In 2009, Voice music editor Rob Harvilla asked Tom Hull, who wrote a Jazz Consumer Guide for the Voice (2005-2011), to help out by hosting the individual ballots (a field which had swollen to 99 critics). Hull continued to help out in various ways, including hosting the complete results and ballots for each poll. As of 2022, Hull is running the whole poll.

Annual Results, Ballots, and Essays

Note that some material from the earlier polls may be missing. The intent is eventually to collect all of the poll information here.

  1. 2006: Harmolodic Convergence
  2. 2007
  3. 2008: Sonny Rollins Rules the Third Annual Voice Jazz Critics Poll
  4. 2009
  5. 2010
  6. 2011
  7. 2012
  8. 2013
  9. 2014
  10. 2015
  11. 2016
  12. 2017
  13. 2018
  14. 2019
  15. 2020
  16. 2021
  17. 2022
  18. 2023