Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll

The 2025 End-of-Year Poll, our 20th annual, is available now, with overall essays and standings at The Arts Fuse, and complete results, including all 113 voter ballots, on our website.

Links:

The Institution Continues
New Jazz Albums
Rara Avis
Vocal Jazz Albums
Latin Jazz Albums
Debut Jazz Albums
Jazz Notables We Lost in 2025, by Andrey Henkin
Meet the Voters

Our 2025 Mid-Year Poll is available now, with overview essays and standings at The Arts Fuse, and complete results, including all 113 voter ballots, on our website.

Links:

Sad news that our founder and guiding light, Francis J. Davis, 78, has died, on Monday, April 14, 2025.

Francis wrote movingly about his health problems in his last poll essay, here.

More information will be added here as it becomes available.

Obituaries:

Nate Chinen [NPR] [04-16]: Francis Davis, a figurehead of jazz criticism, has died. Chinen also wrote about Davis in his Substack newsletter, The Gig. The initial post has also appeared on many NPR radio station websites.
Gary Miles [Philadelphia Inquirer] [04-16]: Francis Davis, celebrated music critic, author, and historian, has died at 78
Adam Nositer [NYT] [04-17]: Francis Davis, Sharp-Eared Jazz Critic, Is Dead at 78
Jon Garelick [04-18]: Arts Remembrance: Francis Davis, 1946-2025
Michael J West [04-22]: Francis Davis, Esteemed Jazz Critic, Dies at 78
David A Graham [04-24]: The Critic Who Translated Jazz Into Plain English: "When Francis Davis pronounced judgment on music, it carried a great deal of weight."
Allen Lowe [04-28]: A Tribute to Francis Davis
Jazz Journalists Association Editor [04-22]: Celebrating Francis Davis, 1946-2025
Terry Gross [05-02]: Terry Gross remembers her late husband, jazz writer Francis Davis
Wikipedia: Francis Davis
Wikiwand: Francis Davis
Memorial Service Details at Remember My Journey

About the Poll

Back in 2006, Francis Davis decided to poll a circle of critics "currently living in New York and/or writing for New York-based publications" to supplement his own end-of-year list and essay in The Village Voice. Thus began an annual poll, which has grown from its its initial 30 critics to 156 in 2021. Davis continued to run the Jazz Critics Poll up through 2021, keeping it going after he left the Voice in 20??, finding sponsors from Rhapsody, NPR (-2021), and ArtsFuse (2021).

In 2009, Voice music editor Rob Harvilla asked Tom Hull, who wrote a Jazz Consumer Guide for the Voice (2005-2011), to help out by hosting the individual ballots (a field which had swollen to 99 critics). Hull continued to help out in various ways, including hosting the complete results and ballots for each poll. As of 2022, Hull is running the whole poll.

PS: In July, 2024, we are running our first ever Mid-Year Poll. If you've voted in the past but didn't get an invite (first, check your spam folder), or think you have comparable credentials to the writers and broadcasters who have previously voted (the 2023 list is here), and would like to submit your list, please read the invitation.

PPS: Our second annual 2025 Mid-Year Poll is complete, and published on July 11, 2025.

Annual Results, Ballots, and Essays

Note that some material from the earlier polls may be missing. The intent is eventually to collect all of the poll information here.