Francis Davis founded The Annual Jazz Critics Poll in 2006. It was published by The Village Voice through 2011. It has since been picked up by Rhapsody (), NPR (), and ArtsFuse (since 2021). The Poll was supervised by Davis through 2021, with various degrees of help from Tom Hull, who keeps it going, and manages this website.
The First Annual Mid-Year Poll was conducted by Hull, to be published in late July by ArtsFuse. Complete ballots, as always, will be published here.
Ballot invitations were sent out on June 30 (see letter. Deadline for submissions is Sunday, July 14. The Poll will be published the following week.
One change to the website as of 2023 is that album titles in the complete results and ballots files have a link (look for →) which will print out a list of everyone who voted for the album. From there, you can get to the ballots for each voter.
The Mid-Year Poll has dropped the special categories for Debut, Latin, and Vocal. New Releases and Rara Avis (historical releases, including reissues and compilations) continue, although the points system is revised: Ranked lists are given extra points, although much less than the previous 10-to-1 and 3-to-1 scales.
Voters are asked to pick up to 10 new releases and/or up to 5 rara avis. The Poll has usually drawn a dividing line between these categories at 10 years (so anything recorded in 2013 or earlier would be considered rara avis), but that distinction will not be enforced in this Mid-Year Poll. Rara Avis albums that receive votes in New Releases may be awarded extra points.
Voters may submit unranked lists (alphabetized by artist), which will receive 1 point each. Ranked lists will be weighted from 3-to-1 for New Releases and 2-to-1 for Rara Avis.
The following pieces were published in Arts Fuse:
The 90 voter ballots are presented in batches of 20 ballots:
The complete list of voting critics, with links to individual ballots, is here.
Methodology
Voters were asked to submit a list of up to 10 new jazz albums, released any time (including after deadline) in 2024, or recently discovered from 2023. Lists may be unranked, or (preferably) listed in descending order. Unranked lists are scored one point each. Ranked lists are awarded extra points, ranging from 3.0 for 1st place to 1.0 for 10th.
Voters were also asked to submit a list of up to 5 rara avis jazz albums (reissues, compilations, and/or archival material recorded more than 10 years ago (i.e., 2013 or earlier). Lists may be unranked, or (preferably) listed in descending order. Unranked lists are scored one point each. Ranked lists are awarded extra points, ranging from 2.0 for 1st place to 1.0 for 5th.
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.
Additional Notes
Notes for Voters: We've written up some additional notes to help voters, especially where questions may arise on definitions, including album eligibility. This information is not classified "top secret," but is probably uninteresting unless you have been invited to vote.
We should establish a contact link here. Until then, you may use this one, which will reach Tom Hull.