Dear Colleague,
Founded by Francis Davis in 2006, this is the 19th annual Jazz Critics Poll. Results will be published by ArtsFuse in early January, 2025, and on this website.
Let's make this as simple as possible: Please fill this out and send it to me, with Sunday, December 15 as the official deadline:
Your name and primary affiliation(s)
Your choices for up to 10 New Releases of 2024
(in descending order, 1-to-10, or unranked and alphabetized by artist).
Your choices for up to 5 Rara Avis (archival/reissues) of
2024 (in descending order, 1-to-5, or unranked and alphabetized by artist).
You may also pick up to three choices in the cagegories Vocal, Latin, and Debut (in addition to any such records you pick in your ballots; it would be helpful if you designated them in the New Releases/Rara Avis lists). These lists are unranked. So:
Your choices for up to 3 Vocal albums:
Your choices for up to 3 Latin albums:
Your choices for up to 3 Debut albums:
I think what you should focus on here coming up with a list of records that you most wish to recommend to your colleagues and readers. While the consensus rankings will be of interest to many, the Poll is at least that valuable as a prospecting tool.
If you prefer to submit an unranked list, please state so and/or alphabetize your list by artist (last name).
Unranked lists will receive one point per album. Albums in ranked lists will receive extra points, ranging from 3-to-1 for New, 2-to-1 for Rara Avis. Thus you have some incentive to rank, but not a big one.
The recommended divide between New Releases and Rara Avis is a recording date of Dec. 31, 2014. You may include older recordings under New Releases if that's what you prefer. You may include a record in both New Releases and Rara Avis to make sure it's counted both ways. (I may add points to Rara Avis for records eligible there that receive votes under New Releases.)
You may also include any 2023 releases that are new to you. Nobody gets to listen to everything within the calendar year, so we're all catching up. I may compile some data later, but we're not doing carryover votes, as we do for year-end polls.
I've set up a website to manage this poll. It is at:
This currently has some information of interest to voters, including news, more precise definitions of categories, details on album eligibility, and answers to other questions. (If not, please ask.) Eventually, the website will include complete ballots and totals, as well as a nice way to explore by hopping from album to ballot to album again.
Please respond with any questions you may have. A notice that you receive this and intend to vote is not necessary, but would be appreciated. I will post further news on this in my Music Week blog, and (more cryptically) on X.
You may contact me through my contact form, or by email: 24myvotes [at] hullworks.net.
Your colleague,
Tom Hull