The 21st Annual
Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll:
2026 Mid-Year

Ballot 2026 Mid-Year

Bill Brownlee (Plastic Sax)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Craig Taborn, Dream Archives (ECM) →
  2. Irreversible Entanglements, Future Present Past (Impulse!) →
  3. Angelika Niescier, Chicago Tapes (Intakt) →
  4. Dave Douglas, Transcend (Greenleaf Music) →
  5. Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, Happy Today (International Anthem/Nonesuch) →
  6. Ambrose Akinmusire & Mary Halvorson, Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings (Nonesuch) →
  7. The Tomeka Reid Quartet, Dance! Skip! Hop! (Out of Your Head) →
  8. Ben Allison - Steve Cardenas - Ted Nash, Triological (Sunnyside) →
  9. Bill Frisell, In My Dreams (Blue Note) →
  10. The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis, Deface the Currency (Impulse!) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Peggy Lee, Too Marvelous for Words (1955, Peggy Lee Associates) →
  2. Marion Brown, Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 (NoBusiness) →
  3. Duke Ellington, Copenhagen 1964 (Storyville) →
  4. Art Pepper, Everything Happens to Me: 1959 Live at the Cellar (Omnivore) →
  5. Daunik Lazro - Joëlle Léandre - Paul Lovens, For Baritone Sax, Double Bass & Drumset (2013, Relative Pitch) →