The Critics

The following critics have voted in this poll this year. More have been invited, and when they submit ballots they will be added here.

• Rui Miguel Abreu: Expresso, Rimas e Batidas, We Jazz Helsinki; radio Nota Azuis, on Antena 2/RTP
• Paul Acquaro: Free Jazz Collective, Jazz Podium
• Scott Albin: Amazon.com
• Shannon Ali (Shannon J. Effinger): freelance
• Ali Alizadeh [Sir Ali]: Jazz Attitude [Frequence K/Jet FM, Nantes, France], Jazzophone
• Mirian Arbalejo: Ditirambop
• Hrayr Attarian: Jazziz, All About Jazz
• Angela Ballhorn: Jazzthetik, Jazz'N'More, Jazz-Fun.de
• Dave Barber: WYSO [Yellow Springs, OH]
• Franpi Barriaux: Citizen Jazz
• Chris Barton: Los Angeles Times
• Joe Bebco: The Syncopated Times
• Larry Birnbaum: Stereophile
• Larry Blumenfeld: Wall Street Journal
• Richard Blute: Free Jazz Collective
• Philip Booth: JazzTimes, Jazziz, Culture Pop: Sound & Screen
• Mike Borella: Avant Music News
• Marcela Breton: freelance
• Stuart Broomer: Free Jazz Collective, Musicworks, New York City Jazz Record, Point of Departure, The Whole Note
• Bill Brownlee: Plastic Sax
• Dan Buskirk: Fun2Know Podcast, WPRB [Princeton]
• Sidney Carpenter-Wilson: The Mortifying Ideal
• Nuno Catarino: jazz.pt
• Jeff Cebulski: New York City Jazz Record, Chicago Jazz
• John Chacona: All About Jazz, Postgenre Media, Let's Call This
• Gary Chapin: Free Jazz Collective
• Nate Chinen: The Gig, WRTI, NPR Music
• Brad Cohan: New York City Jazz Record, Bandcamp Daily
• Troy Collins: Point of Departure
• Thomas Conrad: Stereophile, JazzTimes, New York City Jazz Record
• J.D. Considine: DownBeat
• Mark Corroto: All About Jazz
• Michael Coyle: WRCU [Colgate University]
• David Cristol: Free Jazz Collective, New York City Jazz Record
• Matthew Crook: Dismal Niche Arts, Profane Illuminations
• Anthony Dean-Harris: Portland Jazz Radio, KMHD; DownBeat
• Steve Dollar: freelance
• Laurence Donohue-Greene: The New York City Jazz Record
• Troy Dostert: All About Jazz
• Alain Drouot: Downbeat, Citizen Jazz
• Ken Dryden: New York City Jazz Record, Hot House, Timeless Jazz [WUTC-FM]
• Chuck Eddy: Poplar Mucilage, Eliminated for Reasons of Space, Napster
• John Ephland: DownBeat, All About Jazz
• Lee Rice Epstein: Free Jazz Collective, But does it swing?
• Steve Erickson: ArtsFuse
• Steve Feeney: ArtsFuse, Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram
• Gary Finney: WQLN NPR [Erie, PA], Jazz Buffalo
• Phil Freeman: Stereogum, The Wire, DownBeat, Burning Ambulance
• Filipe Freitas: JazzTrail
• Pat Frisco: WHFR-FM [Dearborn, MI]
• Jon Garelick: Arts Fuse, Boston Globe
• Ana Gavrilovska: Uncut
• Richard Gehr: Relix
• Brooks Geiken: Arts Fuse, LatinJazzNet, Substack
• Kurt Gottschalk: New York City Jazz Record, The Wire, WKCR
• David A. Graham: The Atlantic
• Ludovico Granvassu: All About Jazz/All About Jazz Italia, Radio Free Brooklyn: Mondo Jazz
• Mike Greenblatt: The Jersey Sound, Goldmine, The Aquarian
• George Grella: The Brooklyn Rail, Red Hook/Village Star-Revue, Bandcamp Daily, Kill Yr Idols, Minimalist Music
• Jason Gross: Perfect Sound Forever, New York City Jazz Record, Rock & Roll Globe
• James Hale: DownBeat, SoundStageNetwork.com
• Eyal Hareuveni: Free Jazz Collective, Salt Peanuts, Percorsi Musicali
• Chris Heim: KMUW-FM [Wichita, KS]
• Tad Hendrickson: freelance
• Andrey Henkin: JazzTimes, Stereophile, Jazzwise, Jazz Passings
• Dylan Hicks: NR MINT
• Geoffrey Himes: JazzTimes, Chamber Music
• Rob Hoff: WQLN NPR [Erie, PA], WETF [South Bend, IN], JazzErie
• Larry Hollis: Cadence
• Mark Holston: Latino, Jazziz
• C. Andrew Hovan: All About Jazz, DownBeat
• Tom Hull: Tom Hull - On the Web, Notes on Everyday Life
• Peter Hum: The Ottawa Citizen
• Jim Hynes: Glide, PostGenre, Making a Scene!
• Willard Jenkins: The Independent Ear, DownBeat, DC Jazz Festival, Ain't But a Few of Us
• Martin Johnson: NPR Fresh Air, Wall Street Journal
• Sanford Josephson: Jersey Jazz Magazine
• Matthieu Jouan: Citizen Jazz
• Ammar Kalia: The Guardian, The Observer, DownBeat, Jazzwise
• Richard B. Kamins: Step Tempest
• George Kanzler: Hot House, New York City Jazz Record
• Fred Kaplan: Slate, Tracking Angle
• Yoshi Kato: DownBeat, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Classical Voice
• Glenn Kenny: Some Came Running, RogerEbert.com, New York Times
• James Koblin: The Necessary Blues, WVKR 91.3FM [Vassar College]
• Elzy Kolb: freelance
• Stuart Kremsky: Mr. Stu's Record Room
• David Kunian: Offbeat, WWOZ-FM [New Orleans], New Orleans Jazz Museum, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
• Art Lange: freelance
• Tim Larsen: Jazz Views
• Will Layman: PopMatters, Big Butter & Egg Man
• Devin Leonard: Bloomberg Businessweek
• Lance Liddle: Bebop Spoken Here
• Mark Lomanno: JazzTimes, The Rhythm of Study, University of Miami
• Suzanne Lorge: DownBeat, New York City Jazz Record
• Brad Luen: Semipop Life
• Phillip Lutz: DownBeat
• Kevin Lynch: The Shepherd Express, Culture Currents (Vernaculars Speak)
• Jim Macnie: DownBeat, Lament for a Straight Line
• Peter Margasak: Nowhere Street, The Wire, Bandcamp Daily, DownBeat, Chamber Music
• Paul Medrano: Best of Jazz
• Allen Michie: The Arts Fuse
• Milo Miles: The Arts Fuse, Miles to Go
• Bill Milkowski: DownBeat, Absolute Sound
• Roz Milner: Dusted, Milner on Music
• Ralph A. Miriello: Notes on Jazz
• Rick Mitchell: Jazz in the New Millennium [book/radio program]
• Chris Monsen: Musikkmagasinet [Klassekampen], Jazznytt, Chris Monsen's Listening Booth
• John Frederick Moore: Jazziz
• Allen Morrison: DownBeat, JazzTimes
• Greg Morton: Substack, GMort On Record
• Ivana Ng: DownBeat
• Stuart Nicholson: Jazzwise
• Fotis Nikolakopoulos: Free Jazz Collective
• Tim Niland: Bluesky
• Piotr Orlov: Dada Strain, ArtForum, Pitchfork
• Dan Ouellette: DownBeat, Stereophile, QWEST.TV, Jazz & Beyond Intel, The Landfill Chronicles
• Phil Overeem: Living to Listen
• Ted Panken: DownBeat, Jazziz, JazzTimes
• Annie Parnell: Nashville Scene, FLOOD
• Terry Perkins: DownBeat
• Lawrence Peryer: The Tonearm
• Sergio Piccirilli: El Intruso
• Steve Pick: Steve Pick's Writing Place
• John Pietaro: New York City Jazz Record, johnpietaro.com
• Dan Polletta: JazzNEO Ideastream Public Media
• Peter Quinn: Jazzwise, The Arts Desk
• Derk Richardson: The Absolute Sound
• Britt Robson: Minnpost, Bandcamp
• Akira Saito: JazzTokyo, Jaz.in, Music Magazine, Jazz Right Now
• Bret Saunders: Denver Post, KBCO-FM [Denver]
• Rich Scheinin: SFJAZZ
• Sarah Schmidt: Jazz Director, WRFL-FM [Lexington, KY]
• Martin Schray: Free Jazz Collective
• Mike Shanley: New York City Jazz Record, JazzTimes, Shanley on Music
• John Sharpe: The New York City Jazz Record, Point of Departure, All About Jazz, Jazz Podium
• Adam Shatz: London Review of Books
• Rob Shepherd: PostGenre Media
• Hank Shteamer: New York Times, Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches
• João Esteves da Silva: jazz.pt, Bandcamp Daily, Free Jazz Blog
• Slim: WRCU
• Stewart Smith: The Wire, We Jazz, Bandcamp Daily, The Quietus
• Jeffrey St. Clair: Counterpunch: Sound Grammar
• Thomas Staudter: The (Croton) Gazette, The New York City Jazz Record, DownBeat
• Ariella Stok: New York City Jazz Record
• Mark Stryker: The Best of the Best: Jazz From Detroit [Magic Circle Productions], Jazz From Detroit [University of Michigan Press]
• Mark Sullivan: All About Jazz
• Dave Sumner: Bandcamp, Bird Is the Worm
• John Szwed: Gagosian Quarterly, Wire
• Derek Taylor: Dusted
• Neil Tesser: KSDS-FM, Jazziz
• Michael Toland: The Big Takeover, The Austin Chronicle
• Michael Ullman: Fanfare, Arts Fuse
• George Varga: San Diego Union-Tribune and Tribune News Service, JazzTimes
• Fabricio Vieira: FreeForm, FreeJazz
• Philip Watson: Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Journal of Music
• Ken Waxman: JazzWord
• Bob Weinberg: Jazziz
• Jason Weiss: The Wire, Le Ventre et l'Oreille
• Ken Weiss: Cadence
• Michael J. West: DownBeat, Washington City Paper, Washington Post
• Richard Williams: The Blue Moment
• Carl Wilson: Slate, 'Crritic!'
• Jerome Wilson: All About Jazz, Radio Fairfax
• Josef Woodard: DownBeat, Jazziz, Los Angeles Times, Santa Barbara Independent, All About Jazz, JoeWoodard.com
• Ron Wynn: The Nashville Scene, Tennessee Tribune, Rock & Blues Muze, The Bluegrass Situation
• Scott Yanow: DownBeat, New York City Jazz Record, Los Angeles Jazz Scene, Syncopated Times, Jazz Rag
• Kazue Yokoi: JazzTokyo

Total: 168 voters.

Notes

Critics who voted in 2024 but didn't vote in 2025 (29, including 4 who died*):

Karl Ackerman, Clifford Allen, Mischa Andriessen, Larry Appelbaum*, Enrico Bettinello, Bill Beuttler, Dan Bilawsky, Esteban Arizpe Castañeda, Robert Christgau, Raul da Gama*, Francis Davis*, Jos Demol, Will Friedwald, Stef Gijssels, Scott Gutterman, Will Hermes, Arlette Hovinga, Robert Iannapollo, T.R. Johnson, Matthias Kirsch, Brian Kiwanuka, Josh Langhoff, Martin Laurentius, Tomás Peña, Marek Romański, Gene Seymour, Sammy Stein, Jeff Tamarkin, Ludwig vanTrikt*.

Critics who voted in 2025 and had voted in previous polls but not in 2024 (8):

Mirian Arbalejo, Marcela Breton, Mark Holston, Allen Morrison, Ted Panken, John Pieraro, Rich Scheinin, Scott Yanow.

Critics who voted for the first time in 2025 (12, including 3 who first voted in 2025 mid-year poll, designated *):

Rui Miguel Abreu, Richard Blute, Matthew Crook, Steve Erickson, Dylan Hicks, Matthieu Jouan*, Tim Larsen, Piotr Orlov*, Martin Schray*, João Esteves da Silva, Ariella Stok, Carl Wilson.

New name Sidney Carpenter-Wilson had voted in 2024 as Sidney Terano.