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

Ballot 2026 Mid-Year

Lee Rice Epstein (Free Jazz Collective, But Does It Swing?)

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Josh Berman Trio, Everybody Else's Life Too (Corbett vs. Dempsey) →
  2. Charles Downs Quartet, Inner (ESP-Disk') →
  3. Daunik Lazro - Joëlle Léandre - Paul Lovens, For Baritone Sax, Double Bass & Drumset (2013, Relative Pitch) →
  4. Vinny Golia Quintet, Angular Momentum (Nine Winds) →
  5. Steven Bernstein/Scotty Hard, ResoNation Trio/Ultra Resonance (Royal Potato Family) →
  6. The Phoenix Trio, Tomorrow Is Today (Giant Step Arts) →
  7. Pat Thomas & XT, Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary) (We Jazz) →
  8. Satoko Fujii Quartet, Burning Wick (Libra '25) →
  9. Jon Irabagon, Focus Out (Irrabagast) →
  10. Hilary Jeffrey, Green Prism: Music by Keith Tippett (Discus Music) →

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. Cecil Taylor Unit, Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts (Elemental Music) →
  2. Michael Gregory Jackson, Clarity [50th Anniversary Edition] (1976, Moved-By-Sound) →
  3. Marty Ehrlich & Julius Hemphill, Circle the Heart (1982, Relative Pitch) →
  4. Woody Shaw, Love Dance (1976, Muse/Time Traveler) →
  5. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Seek & Listen: Live at the Penthouse (1967, Resonance '25) →