The 19th Annual
Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll:
2024
Past Polls Index
New Albums Rara Avis Vocal Latin Debut
Critics
Ackermann - BoothBorella - DavisDean-Harris - GeikenGijssels - HullHum - LangeLanghoff - MonsenMoore - SaitoSaunders - TeranoTesser - Yokoi

2024 Totals: Debuts

A Debut is a first album by an individual as leader or primary contributor. Groups should not be considered, although we might accept a first group album if no member of the group has a previous album as leader, primary contributor, or member of some other group. That said, we allow some degree of discretion to critics to ignore especially obscure disqualifying albums. A good rule of thumb is that any artist who has received any votes in an earlier poll is no longer eligible to be considered under Debut. Votes for clearly ineligible artists are routinely rejected. On the other hand, if an artist is eligible, and releases more than one record in the year, we don't insist that only the first release is eligible.

Critics were asked to designate any albums from their New Albums list that should be counted here. They were also asked to list up to 3 additional albums to count here. The lists are in the order provided, but there is no point system.

The listings are sorted by votes (at the end of the line). There is also a Notes section at the bottom of the page.

  1. Riley Mulherkar, Riley (Westerlies) 19
  2. Sarah Hanahan, Among Giants (Blue Engine) 16
  3. Alfredo Colón, Blood Burden (Out of Your Head) 11
  4. Neta Raanan, Unforeseen Blossom (Giant Step Arts) 8
  5. Kim Cass, Levs (Pi) 7
  6. Ivanna Cuesta, A Letter to the Earth (Orenda) 6
  7. Julien Knowles, As Many, as One (Biophilia) 6
  8. Lawrence Fields, To the Surface (Rhythm 'N' Flow) 5
  9. Alden Hellmuth, Good Intentions (Fresh Sound New Talent) 5
  10. April Varner, April (Cellar Music) 5
  11. Luther Allison, I Owe It All to You (Posi-Tone) 4
  12. Vanisha Gould, She's Not Shiny, She's Not Smooth (Cellar Live) 4
  13. Art Baden, How Much of It Is Real (Rainy Days) 3
  14. Summer Camargo, To Whom I Love (Blue Engine) 3
  15. Euan Edmonds, Beyond Hope and Fear (Desafio Candente) 3
  16. Vanisha Gould and Chris McCarthy, Life's a Gig (Fresh Sound New Talent) 3
  17. Zacchae'us Paul, Jazz Money (Candid) 3
  18. Willy Rodriguez, Seeing Sounds (Coucs) 3
  19. Tomin, A Willed and Conscious Balance (International Anthem) 3
  20. John Alvey, Loft Glow (Jazz Music City) 2
  21. Bark Culture, Warm Wisdom (Temperphantom) 2
  22. Karen Borca & Paul Murphy, Entwined (Relative Pitch) 2
  23. Obed Calvaire, 150 Million Gold Francs (Ropeadope) 2
  24. Mathias Højgaard Jensen, Is as Is (Fresh Sound New Talent) 2
  25. Cassie Kinoshi's Seed., Gratitude (International Anthem) 2
  26. Anni Kiviniemi Trio, Eir (We Jazz) 2
  27. Salvoandrea Lucifora Quartet, Drifters (We Jazz '23) 2
  28. Tomin, Flores Para Verene/Cantos Para Caramina (International Anthem) 2
  29. Rebeka Rusjan Zajc, Prelude (Clean Feed) 2
  30. Altus, Mythos (Biophilia) 1
  31. Holman Álvarez, Hidden Objects (Sunnyside) 1
  32. André 3000, New Blue Sun (Epic '23) 1
  33. Antistatic, Relics (Cuneiform) 1
  34. Hyeonseon Baek, Longing (You & Me Music) 1
  35. Nye Banfield, Trails and Traces (self-released) 1
  36. Mateusz Bliskowski-Grzegorz Nadolny-Piotr Biskupski, Imaginary Landscape (self-released) 1
  37. Kelly Bray & Caleb Duval, Bray/Duval (F.I.M.) 1
  38. Felipe Brito, Não Deixe Para Amanhã (Outside In Muisic) 1
  39. Bas Bulteel, Eye of the Storm (WERF) 1
  40. Monique Chao Jazz Orchestra, Time Chamber (Da Vinci Jazz) 1
  41. Charles Chen, Charles, Play! (Cellar Music) 1
  42. Cocodri, Station Marécage (MaAuLa) 1
  43. Devon Daniels Quintet, LesGo! (Sam First) 1
  44. Jamale Davis, Run With the Hunted (SteepleChase) 1
  45. Camille Dietrich, Grates of Love (Ornette Coleman Fiend Club) 1
  46. divr, Is This Water (We Jazz) 1
  47. Dubbeltrion, Bringing Scandi-Baltic Powerhousejazz to the People (Sonic Transmissions) 1
  48. Morten Duun, Code Breaker (Cmntx) 1
  49. The Elephant, In the Room (Original Cultures) 1
  50. Sara El Hachimi, Pencil in My Pocket (Current Moves) 1
  51. Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly, MESTIZX (International Anthem) 1
  52. Liana Flores, Flower of the Soul (Liana Flores) 1
  53. Alexandre Frazão Quinteto, Quintessência (self-released) 1
  54. Phillip Golub, Abiding Memory (Berthold/Endectomorph Music) 1
  55. Gravelshard, Gravelshard (Phonogram Unit) 1
  56. Aengus Hackett Trio (self-released) 1
  57. Eden Har-Gil, Hearts of Palm (XJazz) 1
  58. Kenji Herbert, A Million Forests of the Fall (Unit) 1
  59. Jun Iida, Evergreen (OA2) 1
  60. Jarien Jamanila, Jarien Plays Jamanila (Jamanila) 1
  61. Mikailo Kasha, Bloom (self-released) 1
  62. Paul Kleber, Little Home (Xjazz) 1
  63. Emiliano Lasansky, The Optimist (Outside In Music) 1
  64. Jérôme Masco, Seeking Directions (Jazz Family) 1
  65. Carlos Mena, Con Personas (With the People) (Pinch) 1
  66. Chris Mentens, XMNTNS (self-released) 1
  67. Dora Morelenbaum, Pique (Mr Bongo) 1
  68. New Regency Orchestra, New Regency Orchestra (Mr Bongo) 1
  69. Nout, Live Album (Trost) 1
  70. O., WeirdOs (Speedy Wunderground) 1
  71. Evita Polidoro, Nerovivo (Tǔk Musi) 1
  72. Arun Ramamurthy Trio, New Moon (Greenleaf Music) 1
  73. Finn Rees, Dawn Is a Melody (Mr Bongo) 1
  74. Javier Rojo, Música Para Amansar Fieras (Fresh Sound New Talent) 1
  75. Jubu Smith, Jubu (Little Village) 1
  76. Ben Solomon, Echolocation (Giant Step Arts) 1
  77. Sonic Tender, Odd Objects (Robalo Music) 1
  78. Miro Sprague-Marty Jaffe-Jason Ennis, Tone Forest (Outside In Music) 1
  79. Thomas Stieger, Choices (Leopard/Jazzline) 1
  80. Curtis Taylor, Taylor Made (Distrokid) 1
  81. Igmar Thomas' Revive Big Band, Like a Tree It Grows (self-released) 1
  82. Hiruy Tirfe, 10,000 Hours (Tirfe) 1
  83. Adèle Viret Quartet, Close to the Water (Lézard Inouie) 1
  84. Pritesh Walia, Hope Town (Pritesh Walia Music) 1
  85. Warmdeutig, It Was Long Ago, It Will Be a Long Time (self-released) 1
  86. Lucy Wijnands, Something Awaits (4605843 DK2 '23) 1
  87. Andrew Wilcox, Dear Mr. Hill (Truth Revolution Recording Collective) 1
  88. Amy Aileen Wood, The Heartening (Colorfield) 1
  89. Tizia Zimmerman & Jason Nazary, Particularly Irrelevant (Wide Ear) 1

Total albums receiving votes: 89. Of these, 3 were initially released in 2023 (3.3%), and 86 in 2024.

Notes

No selection on 77 (of 177) ballots (43.5%). This is up from 2023, which had no selection on 61 (of 159) ballots (38.3%).

Debut albums that received votes in 2023 as well as 2024. These are numbered by their position in 2023. In both years, all votes are counted equally:

  1. Lucy Wijnands, Something Awaits (4605843 DK2 '23) 1 + 1 = 2

The other '23 releases received no votes in 2023.

If an album received votes in the previous year, and received more votes this year, the two years' totals were added together. This applied to: