The 20th Annual
Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll:
2025

Ballot 2025

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