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)
- Qasim Naqvi, Endling (Erased Tapes) →
- James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel, The Universe Will Take Care of You (Border Community) →
- Eli Winter, A Trick of the Light (Three Lobed) →
- Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) →
- Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
- The Young Mothers, Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions) →
- Cassie Watson Francillon & Sasha Masakowski, Suite (self-released) →
- Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop) →
- Daniel Carter & Ayumi Ishito, Endless Season (577) →
- Blacks' Myths Meet Pat Thomas, The Mythstory School (self-released) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)
- Tony Allen & La Bogotá Orquesta Afrobeat, La BOA Meets Tony Allen (2011, Comet) →
- Edison Machado & Boa Nova (1978, Far Out) →
- Irène Schweizer - Rüdiger Carl - Johnny Dyani - Han Bennink, Irène's Hot Four (1981, Intakt) →
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Organic Pulse Ensemble, Ad Hoc (Ultraääni '24) →
- Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz) →
- Matthew Shipp, The Cosmic Piano (Cantaloupe Music) →
- William Hooker, Jubilation (ORG Music) →
- Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
- Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
- Zoh Amba, Sun (Smalltown Supersound) →
- Blacks' Myths Meet Pat Thomas, The Mythstory School (self-released) →
- Trio Glossia, Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions) →
- Rocio Giménez López - Franco Di Renzo - Luciano Ruggieri, La Forma Del Sueño (Blue Art) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Marco Eneidi Quartet, Wheat Fields of Kleyehof (2004, Balance Point Acoustics) →
- William Hooker, A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (Valley of Search) →
- Michael Gregory Jackson, Frequency Equilibrium Koan (1977, Moved-by-Sound) →
Ted Panken (DownBeat, Jazziz, JazzTimes)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)
- Danilo Pérez & Bohlusän Big Band, Lumen (Prophone '24) →
- Alex Sipiagin, Reverberations (Criss Cross Jazz) →
- Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Chris Potter - Eric Harland - Larry Grenadier, First Meeting: Live at Dizzy's Club (5Passion) →
- Dee Dee Bridgewater + Bill Charlap, Elemental (Mack Avenue) →
- Pheeroan akLaff - Scott Robinson - Julian Thayer, aRT (ScienSonic) →
- Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
- Bill Stewart Trio, Live at the Village Vanguard (Criss Cross Jazz) →
- Gillian Margot and Geoffrey Keezer (MarKeez) →
- James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
- Joe Lovano, Homage (ECM) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)
- Chick Corea, Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 (1971, ECM) →
- Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance) →
- Music Inc. [Charles Tolliver - Stanley Cowell - Cecil McBee - Jimmy Hopps], Live at Slugs' Volume I & II (1970, Strata-East/Mack Avenue) →
- Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
- Classic Vanguard Small Group Swing Sessions (1953-57, Mosaic '24) →
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)
- Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) →
- Larry Goldings, I Will (Sam First) →
- Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
- Esthesis Quartet, Sound & Fury (Sunnyside) →
- John Patitucci, Spirit Fall (Edition) →
- Rodney Whitaker, Mosaic: The Music of Gregg Hill (Origin) →
- Brian Charette, Borderless (SteepleChase) →
- Artemis, Arboresque (Blue Note) →
- Chris Cheek, Keepers of the Eastern Door (Analog Tone Factory) →
- Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)
- Keith Jarrett - Gary Peacock - Paul Motian, The Old Country: More From the Deer Head Inn (1992, ECM '24) →
- Andrew Hill, Grass Roots (1968, Blue Note) →
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)
- Kinan Azmeh and CityBand, Live in Berlin (Dreyer Gaido) →
- Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
- Ensemble C, Every Journey (Adhyâropa) →
- Phillip Golub, Loop 7 (Greyfade) →
- Ingrid Laubrock, Purposing the Air (Pyroclastic) →
- Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
- Phantom Honeymoon, Interstellar Underpass (MechaBenzaiten) →
- Noah Preminger, Ballads (Chill Tone) →
- Stef.in, Icterus II (Barnyard) →
- Tal Yahalom, Mirror Image (Adhyâropa) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
- Adam O'Farrill, For These Streets (Out of Your Head) →
- Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi) →
- Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
- Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
- Tropos, Switches (Endectomorph Music) →
- James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
- Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
- Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz) →
- Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance) →
- Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
- Thelonious Monk, With Sonny Rollins 1953 to 1957 Revisited (Ezz-Thetics) →
- Misha Mengelberg & Sabu Toyozumi, The Analects of Confucius (2000, NoBusiness) →
- Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance) →
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley (Zoho) →
- Marshall Allen, New Dawn (Mexican Summer) →
- John Patitucci, Spirit Fall (Edition) →
- Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
- Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
- Jeong Lim Yang, Synchronicity (Sunnyside) →
- Ray Suhy & Lewis Porter Quartet, What Happens Next (Sunnyside) →
- Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
- Béla Fleck - Edmar Castañeda - Antonio Sanchez, BEATrio (Thirty Tigers) →
- Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
Derk Richardson (The Absolute Sound)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
- Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
- Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
- Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
- Sarah Wilson, Incandescence (Brass Tonic) →
- Jacob Garchik, Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time (Yestereve) →
- Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) →
- Guy Klucevsek & Volker Goetze, Little Big Top (Motéma '24) →
- Ben Goldberg - Todd Sickafoose - Scott Amendola, Here to There (Secret Hatch '24) →
- Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Music Inc. [Charles Tolliver - Stanley Cowell - Cecil McBee - Jimmy Hopps], Live at Slugs' Volume I & II (1970, Strata-East/Mack Avenue) →
- Pharaoh Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue) →
- Charles Mingus, Mingus at Monterey (1964, Candid) →
- Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
- Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
Britt Robson (Minnpost, Bandcamp)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Damon Locks, List of Demands (International Anthem) →
- Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
- Adam O'Farrill, For These Streets (Out of Your Head) →
- Cyrus Chestnut, Rhythm, Melody and Harmony (HighNote) →
- Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quintet, Sound Remains (Whirlwind) →
- The Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head) →
- Skullcap, Snakes of Albuquerque (Cuneiform) →
- The Fury, Live in Brooklyn (Giant Step Arts '24) →
- James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-) →
- Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance) →
- McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson, Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' (1966, Blue Note '24) →
- Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
Fiona Ross (Women in Jazz Media, Jazz in Europe)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)
- Artemis, Arboresque (Blue Note) →
- Ashley Jackson, Take Me to the Water (Decca) →
- Dee Dee Bridgewater + Bill Charlap, Elemental (Mack Avenue) →
- Hiromi's Sonicwonder, Out There (Telarc) →
- Janette Mason, ReWired (JMMusic) →
- Macha Gharibian, Phenomenal Women (Rue Bleu Meredith) →
- Shez Raja, Spellbound (Raja) →
- Sultan Stevenson, El Roi (Edition) →
- Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell, We Insist 2025! (Candid) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)
- Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, Live at Leverkusen 1994 (Repertoire) →
- Celia Cruz & Willie Colón, Celia Y Willie (1981, Craft) →
- Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris (1963, Blue Note) →
- Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Himself (1957, Craft) →
Akira Saito (JazzTokyo, Jaz.in, Music Magazine, Taiwan Beats, Jazz Right Now)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)
- Satoko Fujii GEN, Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra) →
- Masayo Koketsu, Nyoinbo - Zenbu Nagareboshi No Sei (Somethin' Cool) →
- Melodies, Melodies (Ammonite Musique) →
- Yukari Sekiya, Duets Till Now, From Here (Umishima) →
- Ensemble Shippolly, Love Shippolly (Niteco Studio & Music Arts) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)
- Toshiyuki Sekine Trio, Strode Rode (1978, Craftman) →
- Masayuki Takayanagi, Holy Holy (1985, Jinya Disc) →
- Masayuki Takayanagi, Stardust (1979, Jinya Disc) →
Bret Saunders (Denver Post, KBCO-FM [Denver])
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
- Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
- Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
- Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite) →
- David Murray Quartet, Birdly Serenade (Impulse!) →
- Joe Morris & Elliott Sharp, Realism (ESP-Disk) →
- Kim Jung Jae, Shamanism (Relative Pitch) →
- Ava Mendoza - Gabby Fluke-Mogul - Carolina Pérez, Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance) →
- Peter Brötzmann - Jason Adasiewicz - Steve Noble - John Edwards, The Quartet: Cafe Oto, London, February, 10 & 11, 2023 (Otoroku) →
- Mark Masters Ensemble, Sam Rivers 100 (Capri) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Sun Ra, Nuits De La Fondation Maeght (1970, Strut) →
- Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance) →
- Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance) →
- Pharaoh Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue) →
- Sun Ra, Stray Voltage (1970s-80s, Modern Harmonic) →
Martin Schray (Free Jazz Collective)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop) →
- Sophie Agnel & John Butcher, Rare (Les Disques Victo) →
- Joe McPhee, I'm Just Sayin' (Smalltown Supersound) →
- Drank [Ingrid Schmoliner & Alexander Kranabetter], Breath in Definition (Trost) →
- Evan Parker & Bill Nace, Branches (Otoroku) →
- Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz) →
- Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite) →
- Peter Brötzmann & Paal Nilssen-Love, Butterfly Mushroom (Trost '24) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance) →
- Larry Stabbins - Keith Tippett - Louis Moholo-Moholo, Live in Foggia (1985, Ogun) →
Gene Seymour (The Nation, CNN.com)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
- Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
- David Murray Quartet, Birdly Serenade (Impulse!) →
- Anouar Brahem, After the Last Sky (ECM) →
- Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
- Eric Scott Reed, Out Late (Smoke Sessions) →
- Ryan Keberle & Collectiv Do Brasil, Choro Das Aguas (Alternate Side) →
- Artemis, Arboresque (Blue Note) →
- Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights (Artwork) →
- Noah Preminger, Ballads (Chill Tone) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Keith Jarrett, New Vienna (2016, ECM) →
- Art Pepper, An Afternoon in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (1980, Elemental Music) →
- Kenny Burrell With Art Blakey, On View at the Five Spot Café: The Complete Masters (1959, Blue Note) →
- 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)
- Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
- Sophie Agnel & John Butcher, Rare (Les Disques Victo) →
- Tyshawn Sorey Trio, The Susceptible Now (Pi '24) →
- Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio, Dream a Dream (Libra) →
- Camila Nebbia - Kit Downes - Andrew Lisle, Exhaust (Relative Pitch) →
- Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
- Myra Melford, Splash (Intakt) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)
- Sun Ra, Nuits De La Fondation Maeght (1970, Strut) →
- Irène Schweizer - Rüdiger Carl - Johnny Dyani - Han Bennink, Irène's Hot Four (1981, Intakt) →
Adam Shatz (London Review of Books)
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
- Alexander Hawkins, Song Unconditional (Intakt) →
- Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) →
- Olie Brice, All It Was (West Hill) →
- Joe Lovano, Homage (ECM) →
- Marilyn Crispell - Thommy Andersson - Michala Østergaard-Nilsen, The Cave (ILK Music) →
- James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
- Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation, This Time (Sunnyside) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
- Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
- Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
- Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
- James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-) →
- Amir ElSaffar & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, Inner Spaces (Kuroneko) →
- Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
- Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
- The Quantum Blues Quartet, Quantum Blues (Ropeadope) →
- Béla Fleck - Edmar Castañeda - Antonio Sanchez, BEATrio (Thirty Tigers) →
- Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
- Resavoir & Matt Gold, Horizon (International Anthem) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Spiritual Jazz 18: Behind the Iron Curtain: Esoteric, Modal, and Progressive Jazz From Central and Eastern Europe (1962-1988) (Jazzman) →
- Sun Ra, Uncharted Passages: New York Piano Soliloquies 1977-79 (Modern Marmonic) →
- Pharaoh Sanders, Izipho Zam (My Gifts) (1973, Strata East/Mack Avenue) →
- Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
- 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
- Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
- Ben Lamar Gay, Yowzers (International Anthem) →
- Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite) →
- Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
- The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Corbett vs. Dempsey) →
- Laura Cocks, FATHM (Relative Pitch/Out of Our Heads) →
- Pat Thomas, The Bliss of Bliss (Konnekt) →
- Wolf Eyes X Anthony Braxton, Live at Pioneer Works, 26 October 2023 (ESP-Disk) →
- Peter Brötzmann - Jason Adasiewicz - Steve Noble - John Edwards, The Quartet: Cafe Oto, London, February, 10 & 11, 2023 (Otoroku) →
- Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Larry Stabbins - Keith Tippett - Louis Moholo-Moholo, Live in Foggia (1985, Ogun) →
- Irène Schweizer - Rüdiger Carl - Johnny Dyani - Han Bennink, Irène's Hot Four (1981, Intakt) →
- 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
- Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
- Sinsuke Fujieda Group, Fukushima (SoFa) →
- James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-) →
- Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) →
- Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
- Yazz Ahmed, A Paradise in the Hold (Night Time Stories) →
- Marshall Allen, New Dawn (Mexican Summer) →
- John Patitucci, Spirit Fall (Edition) →
- Brandon Woody, For the Love of It All (Blue Note) →
- Okonski, Entrance Music (Colemine) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)
- Blackbyds, City Life (1975, Craft/Jazz Dispensary) →
- Dexter Gordon, Landslide (1961-62, Blue Note) →
- Art Pepper, An Afternoon in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (1980, Elemental Music) →
- Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →
- 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)
- Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
- Maggie Nichols & Geoff Eales, Beautiful Love (33 Jazz) →
- Georgia Mancio & Alan Broadbent, A Story Left Untold (Roomspin) →
- Zoe Pia & Mats Gustafsson, Rite (Parco Della Musica) →
- Juno 3 [Han-earl Park - Lara Jones - Pat Thomas], Proxemics (Buster and Friends) →
- Milena Casado, Reflection of Another Self (Candid) →
- Luis Ianes & Noël Akchoté, Seuil (self-released) →
- David Dower Trio, Sonder (self-released) →
- Ivo Perelman & Tyshawn Sorey, Parallel Aesthetics (Fundacja Słuchaj) →
RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)