The 20th Annual
Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll:
2025
Past Polls Index
New Albums Rara Avis Vocal Latin Debut
Critics
Abreu - BrownleeBuskirk - DrouotDryden - GrossHale - KaminsKanzler - MargasakMedrano - ParnellPerkins - SilvaSlim - WeissWest - Yokoi

Ballots 2025 [9]

Prev[Abreu - Brownlee] · [Buskirk - Drouot] · [Dryden - Gross] · [Hale - Kamins] · [Kanzler - Margasak] · [Medrano - Parnell] · [Perkins - Silva] · [Slim - Weiss] · [West - Yokoi] 

Michael J. West (DownBeat, Washington City Paper, Washington Post)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  2. Theo Croker, Dream Manifest (Dom Recs) →
  3. Donny McCaslin, Lullaby for the Lost (Edition) →
  4. Craig Taborn - Nels Cline - Marcus Gilmore, Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic) →
  5. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
  6. Paul Cornish, You're Exaggerating! (Blue Note) →
  7. Benjamin Lackner, Spindrift (ECM) →
  8. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  9. Kalia Vandever, Another View (Northern View) →
  10. Mulatu Astatke, Mulatu Plays Mulatu (Strut) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. George Colligan, Live at the Jazz Standard (2014, Whirlwind) →
  2. Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance) →
  3. Classic Vanguard Small Group Swing Sessions (1953-57, Mosaic '24) →
  4. Classic V-Disc Small Group Jazz Sessions (1943-49, Mosaic '24) →
  5. Marian McPartland, At the Peninsula Library 1972 (Liberation Hall) →

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Richard Williams (The Blue Moment)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  2. Arve Henriksen - Trygve Seim - Anders Jormin - Markku Ounaskari, Arcanum (ECM) →
  3. Masabumi Kikuchi, Hanamichi: The Final Studio Recording Vol. II (2013, Red Hook) →
  4. The Necks, Disquiet (Northern Spy) →
  5. Patricia Brennan, Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic) →
  6. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
  7. Peter Brötzmann - Jason Adasiewicz - Steve Noble - John Edwards, The Quartet: Cafe Oto, London, February, 10 & 11, 2023 (Otoroku) →
  8. Olie Brice, All It Was (West Hill) →
  9. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Charlie Parker, Bird in Kansas City (1941-51, Verve '24) →
  2. Mike Westbrook, The Cortège: Live at the BBC 1980 (Cadillac) →
  3. Pharoah Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue) →
  4. Tomasz Stanko Quartet, September Night (2004, ECM '24) →
  5. Larry Stabbins - Keith Tippett - Louis Moholo-Moholo, Live in Foggia (1985, Ogun) →

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Carl Wilson (Slate, 'Crritic!')

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Cécile McLorin Salvant, Oh Snap (Nonesuch) →
  2. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  3. SML, How You Been (International Anthem) →
  4. Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop) →
  5. Matthew Shipp, The Cosmic Piano (Cantaloupe Music) →
  6. Fieldwork, Thereupon (Pi) →
  7. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  8. Mulatu Astatke, Mulatu Plays Mulatu (Strut) →
  9. Kassa Overall, Cream (Warp) →
  10. Bill Orcutt - Steve Shelley - Ethan Miller, Orcutt Shelley Miller (Silver Current) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Jerome Wilson (All About Jazz, Radio Fairfax)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ensemble C, Every Journey (Adhyâropa) →
  2. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
  3. Linda May Han Oh, Strange Heavens (Biophilia) →
  4. Fabia Mantwill Orchestra, In.Sight (GroundUP Music) →
  5. Jason Kao Hwang, Myths of Origin (True Sound) →
  6. Patricia Brennan, Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic) →
  7. Nicole Glover, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Savant) →
  8. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  9. Pat Thomas, Hikmah (TAO Forms) →
  10. Jimmy Farace, Hours Fly, Flowers Die (Shifting Paradigm) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Seek & Listen: Live at the Penthouse (1967, Resonance) →
  2. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  3. Horace Silver, Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1965, Blue Note) →
  4. Pharoah Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue) →
  5. A New Awakening: Adventures in British Jazz 1966-1971 (Strawberry) →

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Josef Woodard (DownBeat, Jazziz, Los Angeles Times, Santa Barbara Independent, All About Jazz, JoeWoodard.com)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Craig Taborn - Nels Cline - Marcus Gilmore, Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic) →
  2. Dino Saluzzi, El Viejo Caminante (ECM) →
  3. Anthony Braxton, Trillium X (PMP) →
  4. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
  5. John Scofield & Dave Holland, Memories of Home (ECM) →
  6. Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM) →
  7. Patricia Brennan, Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic) →
  8. Jane Ira Bloom & Brian Shankar Adler, Once Like a Spark (Adhyâropa) →
  9. Peter Evans/Being & Becoming, Ars Ludicra (More Is More) →
  10. Mark Turner, Reflections On: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (Giant Step Arts) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate (1963, Resonance) →

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Ron Wynn (The Nashville Scene, Tennessee Tribune, Rock & Blues Muze, The Bluegrass Situation)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  2. Marcus Gilmore, Journey to the New: Live at the Village Vanguard (Drummerslams) →
  3. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  4. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
  5. Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM) →
  6. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-) →
  7. Brandon Woody, For the Love of It All (Blue Note) →
  8. Marshall Allen, New Dawn (Mexican Summer) →
  9. Charles Lloyd, Figure in Blue (Blue Note) →
  10. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Wes Montgomery, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960, Craft) →
  2. Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Himself (1957, Craft) →
  3. Max Roach, We Insist: Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite (1960, Vinyl Me Please) →
  4. Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris (1963, Blue Note) →
  5. Hank Mobley, Roll Call (1960, Blue Note) →

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Scott Yanow (DownBeat, New York City Jazz Record, Los Angeles Jazz Scene, Syncopated Times, Jazz Rag)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

Kazue Yokoi (JazzTokyo)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Tord Gustavsen Trio, Changing Places (2003, ECM) →

VOCAL

LATIN

DEBUT

 

Prev[Abreu - Brownlee] · [Buskirk - Drouot] · [Dryden - Gross] · [Hale - Kamins] · [Kanzler - Margasak] · [Medrano - Parnell] · [Perkins - Silva] · [Slim - Weiss] · [West - Yokoi]