The 20th Annual
Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll:
2025 Mid-Year

Ballots 2025 Mid-Year [5]

Piotr Orlov (Dada Strain, ArtForum, freelance)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Phil Overeem (Living to Listen)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Organic Pulse Ensemble, Ad Hoc (Ultraääni '24)
  2. Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz)
  3. Matthew Shipp, The Cosmic Piano (Cantaloupe Music)
  4. William Hooker, Jubilation (ORG Music)
  5. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  6. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)
  7. Zoh Amba, Sun (Smalltown Supersound)
  8. Blacks' Myths Meet Pat Thomas, The Mythstory School (self-released)
  9. Trio Glossia, Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions)
  10. Rocio Giménez López - Franco Di Renzo - Luciano Ruggieri, La Forma Del Sueño (Blue Art)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Marco Eneidi Quartet, Wheat Fields of Kleyehof (2004, Balance Point Acoustics)
  2. William Hooker, A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (Valley of Search)
  3. Michael Gregory Jackson, Frequency Equilibrium Koan (1977, Moved-by-Sound)

Ted Panken (DownBeat, Jazziz, JazzTimes)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Terry Perkins (DownBeat)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Lawrence Peryer (Spotlight On [podcast], The Tonearm)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

Sergio Piccirilli (El Intruso)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  2. Adam O'Farrill, For These Streets (Out of Your Head)
  3. Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi)
  4. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)
  5. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
  6. Tropos, Switches (Endectomorph Music)
  7. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt)
  8. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)
  9. Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz)
  10. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance)
  2. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)
  3. Thelonious Monk, With Sonny Rollins 1953 to 1957 Revisited (Ezz-Thetics)
  4. Misha Mengelberg & Sabu Toyozumi, The Analects of Confucius (2000, NoBusiness)
  5. Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance)

Steve Pick (Steve Pick's Writing Place)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley (Zoho)
  2. Marshall Allen, New Dawn (Mexican Summer)
  3. John Patitucci, Spirit Fall (Edition)
  4. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
  5. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note)
  6. Jeong Lim Yang, Synchronicity (Sunnyside)
  7. Ray Suhy & Lewis Porter Quartet, What Happens Next (Sunnyside)
  8. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
  9. Béla Fleck - Edmar Castañeda - Antonio Sanchez, BEATrio (Thirty Tigers)
  10. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

Derk Richardson (The Absolute Sound)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
  2. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  3. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)
  4. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
  5. Sarah Wilson, Incandescence (Brass Tonic)
  6. Jacob Garchik, Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time (Yestereve)
  7. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM)
  8. Guy Klucevsek & Volker Goetze, Little Big Top (Motéma '24)
  9. Ben Goldberg - Todd Sickafoose - Scott Amendola, Here to There (Secret Hatch '24)
  10. Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Music Inc. [Charles Tolliver - Stanley Cowell - Cecil McBee - Jimmy Hopps], Live at Slugs' Volume I & II (1970, Strata-East/Mack Avenue)
  2. Pharaoh Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue)
  3. Charles Mingus, Mingus at Monterey (1964, Candid)
  4. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance)
  5. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)

Britt Robson (Minnpost, Bandcamp)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Damon Locks, List of Demands (International Anthem)
  2. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)
  3. Adam O'Farrill, For These Streets (Out of Your Head)
  4. Cyrus Chestnut, Rhythm, Melody and Harmony (HighNote)
  5. Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quintet, Sound Remains (Whirlwind)
  6. The Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head)
  7. Skullcap, Snakes of Albuquerque (Cuneiform)
  8. The Fury, Live in Brooklyn (Giant Step Arts '24)
  9. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-)
  10. Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance)
  2. McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson, Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' (1966, Blue Note '24)
  3. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)

Fiona Ross (Women in Jazz Media, Jazz in Europe)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Akira Saito (JazzTokyo, Jaz.in, Music Magazine, Taiwan Beats, Jazz Right Now)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Bret Saunders (Denver Post, KBCO-FM [Denver])

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  2. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  3. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
  4. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite)
  5. David Murray Quartet, Birdly Serenade (Impulse!)
  6. Joe Morris & Elliott Sharp, Realism (ESP-Disk)
  7. Kim Jung Jae, Shamanism (Relative Pitch)
  8. Ava Mendoza - Gabby Fluke-Mogul - Carolina Pérez, Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance)
  9. Peter Brötzmann - Jason Adasiewicz - Steve Noble - John Edwards, The Quartet: Cafe Oto, London, February, 10 & 11, 2023 (Otoroku)
  10. Mark Masters Ensemble, Sam Rivers 100 (Capri)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Sun Ra, Nuits De La Fondation Maeght (1970, Strut)
  2. Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance)
  3. Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance)
  4. Pharaoh Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue)
  5. Sun Ra, Stray Voltage (1970s-80s, Modern Harmonic)

Martin Schray (Free Jazz Collective)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop)
  2. Sophie Agnel & John Butcher, Rare (Les Disques Victo)
  3. Joe McPhee, I'm Just Sayin' (Smalltown Supersound)
  4. Drank [Ingrid Schmoliner & Alexander Kranabetter], Breath in Definition (Trost)
  5. Evan Parker & Bill Nace, Branches (Otoroku)
  6. Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz)
  7. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite)
  8. Peter Brötzmann & Paal Nilssen-Love, Butterfly Mushroom (Trost '24)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance)
  2. Larry Stabbins - Keith Tippett - Louis Moholo-Moholo, Live in Foggia (1985, Ogun)

Gene Seymour (The Nation, CNN.com)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  2. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note)
  3. David Murray Quartet, Birdly Serenade (Impulse!)
  4. Anouar Brahem, After the Last Sky (ECM)
  5. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
  6. Eric Scott Reed, Out Late (Smoke Sessions)
  7. Ryan Keberle & Collectiv Do Brasil, Choro Das Aguas (Alternate Side)
  8. Artemis, Arboresque (Blue Note)
  9. Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights (Artwork)
  10. Noah Preminger, Ballads (Chill Tone)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Keith Jarrett, New Vienna (2016, ECM)
  2. Art Pepper, An Afternoon in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (1980, Elemental Music)
  3. Kenny Burrell With Art Blakey, On View at the Five Spot Café: The Complete Masters (1959, Blue Note)
  4. Ryan Truesdell, Gil Evans Project Live at Jazz Standard, Vol. 2 (2014, Outside In Music)

John Sharpe (The New York City Jazz Record, Point of Departure, All About Jazz, Jazz Podium)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Adam Shatz (London Review of Books)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)
  2. Alexander Hawkins, Song Unconditional (Intakt)
  3. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM)
  4. Olie Brice, All It Was (West Hill)
  5. Joe Lovano, Homage (ECM)
  6. Marilyn Crispell - Thommy Andersson - Michala Østergaard-Nilsen, The Cave (ILK Music)
  7. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt)
  8. Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation, This Time (Sunnyside)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)
  2. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance)

Rob Shepherd (PostGenre Media)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
  2. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)
  3. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-)
  4. Amir ElSaffar & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, Inner Spaces (Kuroneko)
  5. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  6. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
  7. The Quantum Blues Quartet, Quantum Blues (Ropeadope)
  8. Béla Fleck - Edmar Castañeda - Antonio Sanchez, BEATrio (Thirty Tigers)
  9. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)
  10. Resavoir & Matt Gold, Horizon (International Anthem)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Spiritual Jazz 18: Behind the Iron Curtain: Esoteric, Modal, and Progressive Jazz From Central and Eastern Europe (1962-1988) (Jazzman)
  2. Sun Ra, Uncharted Passages: New York Piano Soliloquies 1977-79 (Modern Marmonic)
  3. Pharaoh Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue)
  4. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance)
  5. William Hooker, A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (Valley of Search)

Stewart Smith (The Wire, We Jazz, Bandcamp Daily, The Quietus)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
  2. Ben Lamar Gay, Yowzers (International Anthem)
  3. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite)
  4. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
  5. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  6. Laura Cocks, FATHM (Relative Pitch/Out of Our Heads)
  7. Pat Thomas, The Bliss of Bliss (Konnekt)
  8. Wolf Eyes X Anthony Braxton, Live at Pioneer Works, 26 October 2023 (ESP-Disk)
  9. Peter Brötzmann - Jason Adasiewicz - Steve Noble - John Edwards, The Quartet: Cafe Oto, London, February, 10 & 11, 2023 (Otoroku)
  10. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Larry Stabbins - Keith Tippett - Louis Moholo-Moholo, Live in Foggia (1985, Ogun)
  2. Irène Schweizer - Rüdiger Carl - Johnny Dyani - Han Bennink, Irène's Hot Four (1981, Intakt)
  3. To Live and Shave in L.A., The Wigmaker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg (1995-2000, Palilia)

Jeffrey St. Clair (Counterpunch: Sound Grammar)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  2. Sinsuke Fujieda Group, Fukushima (SoFa)
  3. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-)
  4. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM)
  5. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)
  6. Yazz Ahmed, A Paradise in the Hold (Night Time Stories)
  7. Marshall Allen, New Dawn (Mexican Summer)
  8. John Patitucci, Spirit Fall (Edition)
  9. Brandon Woody, For the Love of It All (Blue Note)
  10. Okonski, Entrance Music (Colemine)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Blackbyds, City Life (1975, Craft/Jazz Dispensary)
  2. Dexter Gordon, Landslide (1961-62, Blue Note)
  3. Art Pepper, An Afternoon in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (1980, Elemental Music)
  4. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance)
  5. Bill Evans, Further Ahead: Live in Finland 1964-1969 (Elemental Music)

Note: Also see Sound Grammar: Francis Davis and the Best Jazz of 2025 (So Far)

Sammy Stein (Free Jazz Collective, Something Else, Platinum Mind, Kind of Jazz)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)