The 20th Annual
Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll:
2025

Ballots 2025 [3]

Ken Dryden (New York City Jazz Record, Hot House, Timeless Jazz [WUTC-FM])

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Fred Hersch, The Surrounding Green (ECM)
  2. Artemis, Arboresque (Blue Note)
  3. Alan Broadbent, Threads of Time (Savant)
  4. Joe Farnsworth, The Big Room (Smoke Sessions)
  5. Jim McNeely, Primal Colors (Challenge)
  6. Duduka Da Fonseca Trio, Rio Fantasia (Sunnyside)
  7. Eric Alexander, Chicago to New York (Cellar Music Group)
  8. Michael Dease, Flow (Posi-Tone)
  9. Joe Lovano, Homage (ECM)
  10. Mark Masters Ensemble, Sam Rivers 100 (Capri)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Bill Evans, Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings (1959-61, Craft)
  2. Yusef Lateef, Golden Flower: Live in Sweden (1967-72, Elemental Music)
  3. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate (1963, Resonance)
  4. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)
  5. Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions (1953-58, Mosaic)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Chuck Eddy (Poplar Mucilage, Eliminated for Reasons of Space, Napster)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Melvin Gibbs, Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 (2006-25, Hausu Mountain)
  2. Mulatu Astatke, Mulatu Plays Mulatu (Strut)
  3. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
  4. Etienne Charles, Gullah Roots (Culture Shock)
  5. Tim Berne - Tom Rainey - Gregg Belisle-Chi, Yikes Too (Screwgun/Out of Your Head)
  6. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  7. Marshall Allen, New Dawn (Mexican Summer)
  8. Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley (Zoho)
  9. Dave Douglas, Alloy (Greenleaf Music)
  10. The Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

John Ephland (DownBeat, All About Jazz)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Lee Rice Epstein (Free Jazz Collective, But does it swing?)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Alexander Hawkins & Taylor Ho Bynum, A Near Permanent State of Wonder (RogueArt)
  2. Talk Show, Miss America (We Jazz)
  3. Dan Rosenboom, Coordinates (Orenda)
  4. Henry Threadgill, Listen Ship (Pi)
  5. Jon Irabagon, Server Farm (Irabbagast)
  6. Will Mason Quartet, Hemlocks, Peacocks (New Focus)
  7. Linda May Han Oh, Strange Heavens (Biophilia)
  8. The Necks, Disquiet (Northern Spy)
  9. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  10. Kim Jung Jae, Shamanism (Relative Pitch)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance)
  2. Marco Eneidi Quintet, Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (2004, Balance Point Acoustics)
  3. Snakeoil, Snakeoil OK (2013, Screwgun)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Steve Erickson (ArtsFuse)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Fieldwork, Thereupon (Pi)
  2. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  3. Patricia Brennan, Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic)
  4. Chicago Underground Duo, Hyperglyph (International Anthem)
  5. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM)
  6. Mulatu Astatke, Mulatu Plays Mulatu (Strut)
  7. Webber/Morris Big Band, Unseparate (Out of Your Head)
  8. Makaya McCraven, Off the Record (International Anthem)
  9. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
  10. Theon Cross, Affirmations: Live at the Blue Note New York (New Soil)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Griot Galaxy, Live on WUOM 1979 (Two Rooms)
  2. Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance)
  3. Stanley Cowell, Musa: Ancestral Streams (1974, Strata-East/Mack Avenue)
  4. Pharoah Sanders, Love Is Here: The Complete Paris 1975 ORTF Recordings (Transcendence Sounds)
  5. Horace Silver, Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1965, Blue Note)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Steve Feeney (ArtsFuse, Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  2. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  3. Linda May Han Oh, Strange Heavens (Biophilia)
  4. Fieldwork, Thereupon (Pi)
  5. Jason Kao Hwang, Myths of Origin (True Sound)
  6. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite)
  7. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
  8. Myra Melford, Splash (Intakt)
  9. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
  10. Billy Mohler, The Eternal (Contagious Music)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Ryan Truesdell Presents Gil Evans Project, Shades of Sound: Live at Jazz Standard, Vol. 2 (2014, Outside In Music)
  2. Oliver Lake, Live From Studio Rivbea 1975 & 1976 (NoBusiness)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Gary Finney (WQLN NPR [Erie, PA], Jazz Buffalo)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Phil Freeman (Stereogum, The Wire, DownBeat, Burning Ambulance)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite)
  2. Kamasi Washington, Lazarus [Adult Swim Original Series Soundtrack] (Milan/Sony Music)
  3. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  4. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM)
  5. Jeremy Pelt, Woven (HighNote)
  6. Nicole Glover, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Savant)
  7. Linda May Han Oh, Strange Heavens (Biophilia)
  8. Tomas Fujiwara, Dream Up (Out of Your Head)
  9. Jaleel Shaw, Painter of the Invisible (Changu)
  10. Yazz Ahmed, A Paradise in the Hold (Night Time Stories)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Note: Also see The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2025 (Stereogum)

Filipe Freitas (JazzTrail)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt)
  2. Ches Smith, Clone Row (Otherly Love)
  3. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)
  4. Thomas Morgan, Around You Is a Forest (Loveland Music)
  5. Fieldwork, Thereupon (Pi)
  6. Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity, Great Intentions (Action Jazz)
  7. Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi)
  8. Webber/Morris Big Band, Unseparate (Out of Your Head)
  9. Donny McCaslin, Lullaby for the Lost (Edition)
  10. Mats Gustafsson - Ken Vandermark - Tomeka Reid - Chad Taylor, Pivot (Silkheart)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Note: Debut vote for Trio of Bloom rejected.

Pat Frisco (WHFR-FM [Dearborn, MI])

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Jon Garelick (Arts Fuse, Boston Globe)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)
  2. Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions (1953-58, Mosaic)
  3. Miles Davis, Miles '55: The Prestige Recordings (Craft)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Note: Also see the author's section in The Best Jazz Albums of 2025

Ana Gavrilovska (Uncut)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Richard Gehr (Relix)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Natural Information Society, Perseverance Flow (Eremite)
  2. Tim Berne - Tom Rainey - Gregg Belisle-Chi, Yikes Too (Screwgun/Out of Your Head)
  3. Ed Palermo Big Band, Prog vs Fusion: A War of the Ages (Sky Cat)
  4. Amir ElSaffar, New Quartet Live at Pierre Boulez Saal (Maqām)
  5. Mark Kirschenmann, Tonics: 7 Melodies for Trumpet With Bamboo Mouthpipe (Infrequent Seams)
  6. Craig Taborn - Nels Cline - Marcus Gilmore, Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic)
  7. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  8. Webber/Morris Big Band, Unseparate (Out of Your Head)
  9. Ingebrigt Håker Flaten's (Exit) Knarr, Drops (Sonic Transmissions)
  10. Joe Morris & Elliott Sharp, Realism (ESP-Disk)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Frank Zappa, Cheaper Than Cheep (1974, Zappa/UMe)
  2. Stanley Cowell, Musa: Ancestral Streams (1974, Strata-East/Mack Avenue)
  3. Roland Kirk Quartet, Domino: Live at Radio Bremen TV-Studios 1963 (1963, MIG)
  4. Pharoah Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue)
  5. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Brooks Geiken (Arts Fuse, LatinJazzNet, Substack)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Doug Beavers, Titanes Del Trombón [Remastered] (2015, Circle 9)
  2. Roy Brooks, The Free Slave (1970, Muse/Time Traveler)
  3. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)
  4. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance)
  5. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Kurt Gottschalk (New York City Jazz Record, The Wire, WKCR)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM)
  2. Brandon Lopez, Nada Sagrada (Relative Pitch)
  3. Cécile McLorin Salvant, Oh Snap (Nonesuch)
  4. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)
  5. Alex Paxton, Delicious (New Amsterdam)
  6. Potsa Lotsa XL, Amoeba's Dance (Trouble in the East)
  7. PRAED Orchestra!, The Dictionary of Lost Meanings (Discrepant)
  8. Ches Smith, Clone Row (Otherly Love)
  9. Henry Threadgill, Listen Ship (Pi)
  10. Wolf Eyes X Anthony Braxton, Live at Pioneer Works, 26 October 2023 (ESP-Disk)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Derek Bailey - Paul Lovens - Jon Rose, Podewil (1992, The Jon Rose Archive)
  2. Dave Burrell & Sam Woodyard, The Lost Session: Paris 1979 (NoBusiness)
  3. Ella Fitzgerald, The Moment of Truth: Ella at the Coliseum (1967, Verve)
  4. Fred Frith & Shelley Burgon, The Life and Behavior (2002-05, Relative Pitch)
  5. Irène Schweizer - Rüdiger Carl - Johnny Dyani - Han Bennink, Irène's Hot Four (1981, Intakt)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

David A. Graham (The Atlantic)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Patricia Brennan, Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic)
  2. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt)
  3. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  4. Miguel Zenón Quartet, Vanguardia Subterranea: Live at the Village Vanguard (Miel Music)
  5. Craig Taborn - Nels Cline - Marcus Gilmore, Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic)
  6. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note)
  7. The Westerlies, Paradise (Westerlies)
  8. Chad Taylor Quintet, Smoke Shifter (Otherly Love)
  9. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
  10. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Horace Silver, Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1965, Blue Note)
  2. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance)
  3. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance)
  4. Keith Jarrett, New Vienna (2016, ECM)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Ludovico Granvassu (All About Jazz/All About Jazz Italia, Radio Free Brooklyn: Mondo Jazz)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Mike Greenblatt (The Jersey Sound, Goldmine, The Aquarian)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. John O'Gallagher - Ben Monder - Andrew Cyrille - Billy Hart, Ancestral (Whirlwind)
  2. Stephane Wrembel, Django New Orleans II: Hors Série (Water Is Life)
  3. Kenny Barron, Songbook (Artwork)
  4. Jaleel Shaw, Painter of the Invisible (Changu)
  5. Christian McBride Big Band, Without Further Ado, Vol. 1 (Mack Avenue)
  6. Johnny Iguana, At Delmark: Chicago-Style Solo Piano (Delmark)
  7. Jim Witzel, Very Early: Remembering Bill Evans (Joplin & Sweeney)
  8. Mike Freeman Zonavibe, Circles in a Yellow Room (VOF)
  9. Seth MacFarlane, Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements (Verve)
  10. Carrie Jackson, Jersey Bounce (Arabesque Jazz)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Bill Evans, Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings (1959-61, Craft)
  2. Ray Barretto Y Su Orquesta, Celia · Ray · Adalberto: Tremendo Trio! (1983, Craft)
  3. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate (1963, Resonance)
  4. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Seek & Listen: Live at the Penthouse (1967, Resonance)
  5. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Note: Perceptions Trio is not strictly a debut album (Rose and Joray have previous, but were not well known).

George Grella (The Brooklyn Rail, Red Hook/Village Star-Revue, Bandcamp Daily, Kill Yr Idols, Minimalist Music)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Let the Spirit Out: Live at "Mu" London (Spiritmuse)
  2. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
  3. Brandee Younger, Gadabout Season (Impulse!)
  4. Kenny Wheeler Legacy, Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores (Greenleaf Music)
  5. Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop)
  6. Sasha Berliner, Fantôme (Outside In Music)
  7. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite)
  8. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)
  9. Hearts & Minds, Illuminescence (Astral Spirits)
  10. Jacob Garchik, Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time (Yestereve)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Jessica Williams, Blue Abstraction: Prepared Piano Project 1985-1987 (Pre-Echo Press)
  2. Mal Waldron, Candy Girl (1975, Strut)
  3. Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance)
  4. Keith Jarrett, New Vienna (2016, ECM)
  5. Pharoah Sanders, Love Is Here: The Complete Paris 1975 ORTF Recordings (Transcendence Sounds)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Jason Gross (Perfect Sound Forever, New York City Jazz Record, Rock & Roll Globe)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Hedvig Mollestad Trio, Bees in the Bonnet (Rune Grammofon)
  2. Stephane Wrembel, Django New Orleans II: Hors Série (Water Is Life)
  3. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
  4. Art Hirahara, Peace Unknown (Posi-Tone)
  5. Theon Cross, Affirmations: Live at the Blue Note New York (New Soil)
  6. Kenny Wheeler Legacy, Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores (Greenleaf Music)
  7. George Brown, Jazz in Paris (Astana Music)
  8. Tom Smith, A Year in the Life (Tom Smith)
  9. Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Chris Potter - Eric Harland - Larry Grenadier, First Meeting: Live at Dizzy's Club (5Passion)
  10. Nicole McCabe, A Song to Sing (Colorfield)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Sam Rivers, A New Conception (1966, Blue Note)
  2. Hank Mobley, Roll Call (1960, Blue Note)
  3. Wes Montgomery With the Wynton Kelly Trio, Smokin' in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966, Resonance)
  4. Nina Simone, Let It All Out: Selected Singles 1961-1978 (Ace)
  5. Scandinavian Art Ensemble With Tomasz Stanko, The Copenhagen Session Vol. 2 (2016, April)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Note: Latin vote for Foto Rodríguez Y Charanga La Única, Homenaje a Pupi Legarreta (TTH) couldn't be verified, so voter took it off list.