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

Ballot 2025 Mid-Year

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)