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 [6]

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

Mark Sullivan (All About Jazz)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
  2. Joshua Redman, Words Fall Short (Blue Note) →
  3. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  4. Anouar Brahem, After the Last Sky (ECM) →
  5. Arve Henriksen - Trygve Seim - Andmers Jormin - Markku Ounaskari, Arcanum (ECM) →
  6. Charlie Ballantine, East by Midwest (Origin) →
  7. Hedvig Mollestad Trio, Bees in the Bonnet (Rune Grammofon) →
  8. Kaisa's Machine, Moving Parts (Greenleaf Music) →
  9. Savina Yannatou Primavera en Salonico and Larnia Bedioui, Watersong (ECM) →
  10. Stephan Thelen, Worlds in Collision (RareNoise) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Bill Evans, In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (1970, Elemental Music '24) →
  2. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  3. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance) →
  4. Frank Kimbrough, The Call (2010, Sunnyside) →
  5. John Surman, Flashpoints and Undercurrents (1969, Cuneiform) →

Dave Sumner (Bandcamp, Bird Is the Worm)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

Derek Taylor (Dusted)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Pat Thomas, The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir (Otoroku '24) →
  2. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
  3. Peter Brötzmann - Jason Adasiewicz - Steve Noble - John Edwards, The Quartet: Cafe Oto, London, February, 10 & 11, 2023 (Otoroku) →
  4. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
  5. Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation, This Time (Sunnyside) →
  6. Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi) →
  7. Mats Gustafsson - Ken Vandermark - Tomeka Reid - Chad Taylor, Pivot (Silkheart) →
  8. Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM) →
  9. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
  10. Hearts & Minds, Illuminescence (Astral Spirits) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Ray Russell Quartet, The Complete Spontaneous Event: Live 1967-1969 (Jazz in Britain) →
  2. Jimmy Lyons, Live From Studio Rivbea: 1974 & 1976 (NoBusiness) →
  3. Sun Ra, Nuits De La Fondation Maeght (1970, Strut) →
  4. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance) →
  5. Ellery Eskelin, Trio New York About (or On) First Visit (2011-13, Ezz-Thetics) →

Michael Ullman (Fanfare, Arts Fuse)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Arild Andersen, Landloper (ECM '24) →
  2. The Kris Davis Trio, Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic '24) →
  3. Larry Goldings, I Will (Sam First) →
  4. Noah Haidu, Standards III (Sunnyside) →
  5. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
  6. Fred Hersch, The Surrounding Green (ECM) →
  7. Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni, Javon & Nikki Go to the Movies (Solid Jackson/Palmetto '24) →
  8. Keith Jarrett, New Vienna (2016, ECM) →
  9. Linda May Han Oh, Strange Heavens (Biophilia) →
  10. Renee Rosnes, Crossing Paths (Smoke Sessions '24) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Classic V-Disc Small Group Jazz Sessions (1943-49, Mosaic) →
  2. Miles Davis Quintet, Miles in France 1963 & 1964 [The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8] (Columbia/Legacy '24) →
  3. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance) →
  4. Kenny Garrett, Sounds From the Ancestors (2021, Mack Avenue) →
  5. Emily Remler, Cookin' at the Queens: Live in Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 (Resonance '24) →

Ludwig vanTrikt (Cadence)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. The Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head) →
  2. Something Blue, In the Beginning (Posi-Tone) →
  3. Mu Quintet, Enos (Jazz Aggression) →
  4. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
  5. Danny Grissett, Travelogue (Savant) →
  6. Tyreek McDole, Open Up Your Senses (Artworks) →
  7. Marcin Masecki Trio, Monk (BMC) →
  8. Rachel Therrien Latin Jazz Project, Mi Hogar II (self-released) →
  9. Ingi Bjarni, Hope (Losen) →
  10. Etienne Charles, Gullah Roots (Culture Shock) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Clifford Jordan Big Band, Play What You Feel (1990, Mapleshade/P-Vine) →
  2. Freddie Hubbard, Here to Stay (1962, Blue Note) →
  3. Enrico Rava, Il Giro Del Giorno in Mondi 80 (1972, Eargong) →
  4. Sun Ra, On Jupiter (1979, Saturn/Strut) →
  5. Music Inc. [Charles Tolliver - Stanley Cowell - Cecil McBee - Jimmy Hopps], Live at Slugs' Volume I & II (1970, Strata-East/Mack Avenue) →

Fabricio Vieira (FreeForm, FreeJazz)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) →
  2. Brandon Lopez & DoYeon Kim, Syzygy Vol. 1 (577) →
  3. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
  4. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →
  5. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite) →
  6. Tom Weeks, Paranoid II (Wolfsblood) →
  7. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) →
  8. Camila Nebbia, Rastro O Vacío (Lilaila) →
  9. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  10. Eunhye Jeong & Michael Bisio, Morning Bells Whistle Bright (ESP-Disk) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance) →
  2. Pharoah Sanders, The Complete Pharoah Sanders Theresa Recordings (1980-87, Mosaic) →
  3. John Surman, Flashpoints and Undercurrents (1969, Cuneiform) →
  4. Dave Burrell & Sam Woodyard, The Lost Session: Paris 1979 (NoBusiness) →
  5. Noah Howard Quartet, Schizophrenic Blues: Live in Berlin (1977, Cien Fuegos) →

Philip Watson (Irish Times, Irish Examiner, The Wire)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Linda May Han Oh, Strange Heavens (Biophilia) →
  2. Myra Melford, Splash (Intakt) →
  3. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  4. Arve Henriksen - Trygve Seim - Andmers Jormin - Markku Ounaskari, Arcanum (ECM) →
  5. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
  6. Billy Mohler, The Eternal (Contagious Music) →
  7. Ganavya, Nilam (Leiter) →
  8. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) →
  9. Snowpoet, Heartstrings (Edition) →
  10. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Clifford Jordan, Glass Bead Games (1973, Strata-East/Mack Avenue) →
  2. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance) →
  3. Andrew Hill, Grass Roots (1968, Blue Note) →
  4. A New Awakening: Adventures in British Jazz 1966-1971 (Strawberry) →
  5. Chick Corea, Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 (1971, ECM) →

Ken Waxman (Jazz Word)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL) (unranked)

Jason Weiss (The Wire, Le Ventre et l'Oreille)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. The Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head) →
  2. Claude Tchamitchian Quartet, Vortice (Emouvance) →
  3. GPS, Directions + Destinations (577) →
  4. Adam O'Farrill, For These Streets (Out of Your Head) →
  5. Antonio Borghini & Banquet of Consequences, Resta Chi Va (We Insist!) →
  6. Dan Weiss Quartet, Unclassified Affections (Pi) →
  7. Kristoff K.Roll, Les Ombres De La Nuit (Mazeto Square) →
  8. Ingrid Laubrock, Purposing the Air (Pyroclastic) →
  9. Larry Ochs - Joe Morris - Charles Downs, Every Day → All the Way (ESP-Disk) →
  10. Three Layer Cake, Sounds the Color of Grounds (Otherly Love) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra, Vol. 4: Jo Maka (1977, Souffle Continu) →
  2. Kristen Noguès & John Surman, Diriaou (1998, Souffle Continu) →
  3. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  4. Kenny Dorham, Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957, Resonance) →
  5. Manu Dibango, Dibango 82 (1982, We Want Sounds) →

Michael J. West (DownBeat, Washington City Paper, Washington Post)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Theo Croker, Dream Manifest (Dom Recs) →
  2. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) →
  3. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) →
  4. Theon Cross, Affirmations: Live at the Blue Note New York (New Soil) →
  5. Benjamin Lackner, Spindrift (ECM) →
  6. Sultan Stevenson, El Roi (Edition) →
  7. Michael Wollny Trio, Living Ghosts (ACT Music) →
  8. Brandon Woody, For the Love of It All (Blue Note) →
  9. Alon Farber Hagiga, Dreams | Dream (Origin) →
  10. Gary Brunton, Spacecraft (Juste Une Trace) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Classic V-Disc Small Group Jazz Sessions (1943-49, Mosaic) →
  2. Music Inc. [Charles Tolliver - Stanley Cowell - Cecil McBee - Jimmy Hopps], Live at Slugs' Volume I & II (1970, Strata-East/Mack Avenue) →
  3. George Colligan, Live at the Jazz Standard (2014, Whirlwind) →
  4. Freddie Hubbard, On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967, Resonance) →

Jerome Wilson (All About Jazz, Radio Fairfax)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Kenny Wheeler Legacy, Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores (Greenleaf Music) →
  2. Ensemble C, Every Journey (Adhyâropa) →
  3. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  4. Jason Kao Hwang, Myths of Origin (True Sound) →
  5. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  6. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) →
  7. Joe Fonda & Bass of Operation (Fundacja Słuchaj '24) →
  8. Billy Mohler, The Eternal (Contagious Music) →
  9. Jimmy Farace, Hours Fly, Flowers Die (Shifting Paradigm) →
  10. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Michael Gregory Jackson, Frequency Equilibrium Koan (1977, Moved-by-Sound) →
  2. Ray Russell Quartet, The Complete Spontaneous Event: Live 1967-1969 (Jazz in Britain) →
  3. A New Awakening: Adventures in British Jazz 1966-1971 (Strawberry) →
  4. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance) →
  5. John Surman, Flashpoints and Undercurrents (1969, Cuneiform) →

Ron Wynn (The Nashville Scene, Tennessee Tribune, Rock & Blues Muze)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) →
  2. Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM) →
  3. Tim Berne - Tom Rainey - Gregg Belisle-Chi, Yikes Too (Screwgun/Out of Your Head) →
  4. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) →
  5. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) →
  6. Marshall Allen, New Dawn (Mexican Summer) →
  7. Artemis, Arboresque (Blue Note) →
  8. Isaiah Collier - William Hooker - William Parker, The Ancients (Eremite) →
  9. Brandon Woody, For the Love of It All (Blue Note) →
  10. Jeremy Pelt, Woven (HighNote) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Wes Montgomery, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960, Craft) →
  2. Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Himself (1957, Craft) →
  3. Max Roach, We Insist: Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite (1960, Vinyl Me Please) →
  4. Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris (1963, Blue Note) →
  5. Hank Mobley, Roll Call (1960, Blue Note) →

Kazue Yokoi (JazzTokyo)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (unranked)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

 

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