The 20th Annual
Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll:
2025 Mid-Year
Past Polls Index
New Albums Rara Avis
Critics
Acquaro - CollinsConsidine - GeikenGottschalk - KennyKoblin - NilandOrlov - SteinSullivan - Yokoi

Ballots 2025 Mid-Year [3]

Prev[Acquaro - Collins] · [Considine - Geiken] · [Gottschalk - Kenny] · [Koblin - Niland] · [Orlov - Stein] · [Sullivan - Yokoi]Next

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

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ben Lamar Gay, Yowzers (International Anthem) →
  2. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
  3. Damon Locks, List of Demands (International Anthem) →
  4. Brandon Lopez, Nada Sagrada (Relative Pitch) →
  5. Alex Paxton, Delicious (New Amsterdam) →
  6. Potsa Lotsa XL, Amoeba's Dance (Trouble in the East) →
  7. Ches Smith, Clone Row (Otherly Love) →
  8. Wolf Eyes X Anthony Braxton, Live at Pioneer Works, 26 October 2023 (ESP-Disk) →
  9. Raed Yassin, Phantom Orchestra (Morphine) →
  10. Adrian Younge, Something About April III (Jazz Is Dead) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Ella Fitzgerald, The Moment of Truth: Ella at the Coliseum (1967, Verve) →
  2. Fred Frith & Shelley Burgon, The Life and Behavior (2002-05, Relative Pitch) →
  3. Sun Ra, On Jupiter (1979, Saturn/Strut) →

David A. Graham (The Atlantic)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  2. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  3. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
  4. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  5. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-) →
  6. Joe Lovano, Homage (ECM) →
  7. Eli Winter, A Trick of the Light (Three Lobed) →
  8. Brandon Woody, For the Love of It All (Blue Note) →
  9. Ganavya, Nilam (Leiter) →
  10. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

Mike Greenblatt (, Goldmine, The Aquarian)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Julian Shore Trio, Sub Rosa (Chill Tone) →
  2. John Patitucci, Spirit Fall (Edition) →
  3. Quinn Sternberg, Pleasant Returns (Mind Beach) →
  4. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  5. Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights (Artwork) →
  6. Felipe Salles, Camera Obscura (Tapestry) →
  7. Mark Masters Ensemble, Sam Rivers 100 (Capri) →
  8. Michika Fukumori, Eternity (Summit) →
  9. Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band, Treasury Volume 2 (Turtle Bay) →
  10. Entre Amigos, Magpie: The Music of Joe Clark (Entre Amigos) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance) →
  2. Joe Pass, Virtuoso (1973, Craft) →
  3. Freddie Hubbard, Here to Stay (1962, Blue Note) →
  4. Bill Evans, Further Ahead: Live in Finland 1964-1969 (Elemental Music) →

George Grella (The Brooklyn Rail, Financial Times, Bandcamp, New York City Jazz Record, VAN, Kill Yr Idols; Bitches Brew 33⅓)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  2. Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop) →
  3. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-) →
  4. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite) →
  5. Sasha Berliner, Fantôme (Outside In Music) →
  6. The Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head) →
  7. Hearts & Minds, Illuminescence (Astral Spirits) →
  8. Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights (Artwork) →
  9. Pitch, Rhythm and Consciousness, Sextet (Reva) →
  10. Carl Allen, Tippin' (Cellar) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

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

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

James Hale (DownBeat, SoundStageXperience.com)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
  2. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  3. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
  4. Myra Melford, Splash (Intakt) →
  5. Kneebody, Reach (GroundUP Music) →
  6. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  7. Gerald Clayton, Ones & Twos (Blue Note) →
  8. Andrew Rathbun, Lost in the Shadows (SteepleChase) →
  9. Jeremy Pelt, Woven (HighNote) →
  10. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
  2. Joe Henderson, Multiple (1973, Craft) →
  3. Michel Petrucciani Trio, Jazz Club Montmartre (1988, Storyville '24) →
  4. Jaki Byard, Blues for Smoke (1960, Candid) →
  5. Joe Pass, Virtuoso (1973, Craft) →

Eyal Hareuveni (Free Jazz Collective, Salt Peanuts, Percorsi Musicali)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Sophie Agnel, Song (Relative Pitch) →
  2. Marilyn Crispell - Thommy Andersson - Michala Østergaard-Nilsen, The Cave (ILK Music) →
  3. Paal Nilssen-Love Circus With the Ex Guitars, Turn Thy Loose (PNL) →
  4. Tim Berne - Tom Rainey - Gregg Belisle-Chi, Yikes Too (Screwgun/Out of Your Head) →
  5. The Ex, If Your Mirror Breaks (Ex) →
  6. Mathias Landæus - Nina de Heney - Kresten Osgood, Dissolving Patterns (SFÄR) →
  7. Jane in Ether, Oneiric (Confront) →
  8. Izumi Kimura & Gerry Hemingway, How the Dust Falls (Auricle) →
  9. Satoko Fujii This Is It!, Message (Libra) →
  10. Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

Andrey Henkin (JazzTimes, JazzWise, Stereophile, WeJazz, Squid's Ear, Point of Departure, QwestTV, New York Times; Jazz Passings)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Littorina Saxophone Quartet, Leaking Pipes (NoBusiness) →
  2. Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz) →
  3. Joe Fonda & Bass of Operation (Fundacja Słuchaj '24) →
  4. Satoko Fujii Quartet, Dog Days of Summer (Libra '24) →
  5. Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi) →
  6. Arashi With Takeo Moriyama, Tokuzo (Trost '24) →
  7. Eunhye Jeong & Michael Bisio, Morning Bells Whistle Bright (ESP-Disk) →
  8. Arve Henriksen - Trygve Seim - Andmers Jormin - Markku Ounaskari, Arcanum (ECM) →
  9. Adam O'Farrill, For These Streets (Out of Your Head) →
  10. Peter Brötzmann - Jason Adasiewicz - Steve Noble - John Edwards, The Quartet: Cafe Oto, London, February, 10 & 11, 2023 (Otoroku) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Irène Schweizer - Rüdiger Carl - Johnny Dyani - Han Bennink, Irène's Hot Four (1981, Intakt) →
  2. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
  3. William Hooker, A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (Valley of Search) →
  4. Ella Fitzgerald, The Moment of Truth: Ella at the Coliseum (1967, Verve) →

Geoffrey Himes (JazzTimes, Chamber Music)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM) →
  2. Joe Lovano, Homage (ECM) →
  3. Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley (Zoho) →
  4. Dayna Stephens, Hopium (Contagious Music) →
  5. Artemis, Arboresque (Blue Note) →
  6. Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi) →
  7. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
  8. Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation, This Time (Sunnyside) →
  9. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  10. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  2. Keith Jarrett, New Vienna (2016, ECM) →
  3. McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson, Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' (1966, Blue Note '24) →
  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) →

Rob Hoff (WQLN NPR [Erie, PA], WETF [South Bend, IN], JazzErie)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Larry Hollis (Cadence)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

C. Andrew Hovan (All About Jazz, DownBeat)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Jordan VanHemert, Survival of the Fittest (Origin) →
  2. Altin Sencalar, Unleashed (Posi-Tone) →
  3. Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights (Artwork) →
  4. Renee Rosnes, Crossing Paths (Smoke Sessions '24) →
  5. Eric Scott Reed, Out Late (Smoke Sessions) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Kenny Burrell With Art Blakey, On View at the Five Spot Café: The Complete Masters (1959, Blue Note) →
  2. Jack Wilkins, Opal (1983, CTI/King Japan) →
  3. The Jazz Crusaders, Freedom Sound (1961, Blue Note) →
  4. Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Himself (1957, Craft) →
  5. Charles Mingus, Mingus at Monterey (1964, Candid) →

Tom Hull (Tom Hull - On the Web)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
  2. Archer, Sudden Dusk (Aerophonic) →
  3. Rodrigo Amado & Chris Corsano, The Healing: Live at ZDB (European Echoes) →
  4. Deepstaria Enigmatica, The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk) →
  5. Larry Ochs - Joe Morris - Charles Downs, Every Day → All the Way (ESP-Disk) →
  6. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-) →
  7. Russ Anixter's Hippie Big Band, What Is? (self-released) →
  8. Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz) →
  9. Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio, Dream a Dream (Libra) →
  10. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. James Moody, 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note March 26, 2005 (Origin) →
  2. Jimmy Lyons, Live From Studio Rivbea: 1974 & 1976 (NoBusiness) →
  3. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  4. Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 (The Village) →
  5. Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance) →

Note: See also The Best Jazz of 2025.

Jim Hynes (Glide, PostGenre, Making a Scene!)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  2. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) →
  3. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  4. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
  5. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
  6. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
  7. David Murray Quartet, Birdly Serenade (Impulse!) →
  8. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
  9. The Quantum Blues Quartet, Quantum Blues (Ropeadope) →
  10. Brandon Woody, For the Love of It All (Blue Note) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
  2. Music Inc. [Charles Tolliver - Stanley Cowell - Cecil McBee - Jimmy Hopps], Live at Slugs' Volume I & II (1970, Strata-East/Mack Avenue) →
  3. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  4. Pharaoh Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue) →
  5. Charlie Rouse, Two Is One (1974, Strata-East/Mack Avenue) →

Martin Johnson (NPR Fresh Air, Wall Street Journal)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi) →
  2. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
  3. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  4. Brandee Younger, Gadabout Season (Impulse!) →
  5. Camila Meza, Portal (GroundUP Music) →
  6. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
  7. Ches Smith, Clone Row (Otherly Love) →
  8. Joe Lovano, Homage (ECM) →
  9. The Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Ryan Truesdell, Gil Evans Project Live at Jazz Standard, Vol. 2 (2014, Outside In Music) →

Matthieu Jouan (Citizen Jazz)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Brighde Chaimbeul, Sunwise (Tak:til) →
  2. Sylvain Darrifourcq - Manuel Hermia - Valentin Ceccaldi, Unicorn and Flexibility (Hector) →
  3. The Young Mothers, Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions) →
  4. Angelika Niescier - Sakina Abdou - Bruno Angelini, Lotus Flowers (Abalone) →
  5. Signe Emmeluth - Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - Axel Filip, Hyperboreal Trio (Relative Pitch) →
  6. Ronny Graupe's Szelest, Newfoundland Tristesse (BMC) →
  7. Mark Solborg, Tungemål: Confluencia (ILK Music) →
  8. Amalie Dahl, Breaking/Building Habits (SauaJazz) →
  9. Sun-Mi Hong, Fourth Page: Meaning of a Nest (Edition) →
  10. Claudia Solal & Benjamin Moussay, Punk Moon (Jazzdor) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

Richard B. Kamins (Step Tempest)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Jane Ira Bloom, Songs in Space (Outline) →
  2. Kenny Wheeler Legacy, Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores (Greenleaf Music) →
  3. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
  4. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
  5. Andy Biskin - Peter Hess - Mike McGinniss - Sam Sadigursky, Reed Basket () →
  6. Myra Melford, Splash (Intakt) →
  7. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  8. The Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head) →
  9. Joe Chambers - Kevin Diehl - Chad Taylor, Onilu (Eremite) →
  10. Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights (Artwork) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Stanley Cowell, Musa: Ancestral Streams (1974, Strata-East/Mack Avenue) →
  2. Frank Kimbrough, The Call (2010, Sunnyside) →
  3. McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson, Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' (1966, Blue Note '24) →
  4. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  5. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →

George Kanzler (Hot House, New York City Jazz Record)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Yoshi Kato (DownBeat, San Francisco Classical Voice)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Sasha Berliner, Fantôme (Outside In Music) →
  2. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  3. Jeong Lim Yang, Synchronicity (Sunnyside) →
  4. Sarah Wilson, Incandescence (Brass Tonic) →
  5. Walter Smith III, Three of Us Are From Houston and Reuben Is Not (Blue Note '24) →
  6. Jacob Garchik, Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time (Yestereve) →
  7. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  8. Hiromi's Sonicwonder, Out There (Telarc) →
  9. Nordkraft Big Band - Remy Le Boeuf - Danielle Wertz, Silent Course (Gateway Music) →
  10. Chaos Magick, Through the Looking Glass (Tzadik) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

Glenn Kenny (Some Came Running, RogerEbert.com, New York Times)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. أحمد [Ahmed], Giant Beauty (Fönstret '24) →
  2. John Zorn, New Masada Quartet, Volume 3: Live at Roulette (Tzadik '24) →
  3. Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM) →
  4. Sophie Agnel & John Butcher, Rare (Les Disques Victo) →
  5. Roscoe Mitchell, Gratitude: One Head Four People (Wide Hive) →
  6. The Quantum Blues Quartet, Quantum Blues (Ropeadope) →
  7. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  8. Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi) →
  9. Dave Liebman - Billy Hart - Adam Rudolph, Beingness (Meta) →
  10. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Frank Zappa, Cheaper Than Cheep (1974, Zappa/UMe) →
  2. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  3. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
  4. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance) →
  5. Keith Jarrett - Gary Peacock - Paul Motian, The Old Country: More From the Deer Head Inn (1992, ECM '24) →

 

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