By Tom Hull

Any survey of new jazz will show the broad range of creation being produced by an extraordinary diversity of musicians. That’s because jazz has spread all around the world, bringing us together in peace (and sometimes even harmony).

I’m always on the prowl for new things to listen to. As a fairly well-known critic, I get a lot of hype in the mail (and even a few CDs), which I supplement by scanning various pubs and blogs, which leads me to some buying and a lot of streaming. When I notice something that looks promising, I add it to my tracking file, and when I hear something, I jot down a few words about it for my Music Week blog, and add the record to my ever-evolving year list. I like lists because they convey a lot of information compactly. I create them to keep track of what I know, but I also consume them: I even have a rather cryptic master list-of-lists — I call it my metacritic file, which gives me some insight into what lots of other people know and think about new records in any given year (for example, see my final 2023 report). It’s not truly comprehensive, and it’s certainly not objective, but it does capture about as much research as one person can do in a year.

I’ve been doing lists like that, more or less obsessively, since 2006, with simpler lists going back to before I got a website, c. 1998. Most of the inputs come from year-end lists and polls, which had become a staple long before the web let them explode. I’m old enough to have voted in Robert Christgau’s Pazz & Jop polls from the mid-’70s, and in Francis Davis’s Jazz Critics Poll since its inception in 2006. I’ve helped out with both over the years, and wound up being the custodian of the Davis Poll in 2023.

As I was doing my thing this year, collecting data from several dozen mid-year lists (AOTY has a useful list of lists, but they rarely venture beyond pop/rock/metal), I found myself bemoaning the dearth of jazz albums on those lineups. Then it occurred to me — that is one problem with the world I could actually do something about. I floated the idea of running a first-ever mid-year Jazz Critics Poll. ArtsFuse agreed to publish. I set up a website where I could keep track of everything. On June 30, I sent out 200 invites to the jazz world’s leading writers and broadcasters, asking them to reply by July 14. About half of them responded. I checked, counted, and formatted their ballots, preparing them for presentation here.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but in the end I counted 90 ballots, which was more than half of the 159 voters in 2023 year-end poll. They voted for 366 albums under “New Releases” and 109 albums under “Rara Avis” (the term Francis Davis chose for both reissues and first releases of older music, recorded more than 10 years ago). As always, you can look at the actual ballots, and by following the links you can find out who voted for any given album, and use that to explore more ballots.

Critics were asked to vote for up to 10 New Releases, and for up to five Rara Avis, with no minimum required. Lists could be ranked, in which case points were awarded according to rank (New Releases went from 3.0 for 1st to 1.0 for 10th; Rara Avis from 2.0 for 1st to 1.0 for 5th), or unranked (preferably, but not always, alphabetized — each unranked record got 1 point). Results were ranked by points, with more votes used as a tiebreaker. Some albums received votes in the wrong category. In those cases I added extra points/votes to the proper category.

I’m inclined to let the data speak for itself, but will note that the top three New Albums artists have been perennial contenders. The race was so competitive that all three finished with 27 votes each: the point count giving Vijay Iyer’s piano trio, Compassion, a clear margin, over saxophonist Charles Lloyd’s The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, and guitarist Mary Halvorson’s Cloudward. Iyer has three previous poll wins (2009, 2012, 2017). Halvorson won in 2022. Lloyd has never won, but has finished in the top-five five times.

The next two slots were filled by artists who had also finished in the top five before: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet) and Tomeka Reid (cello), both AACM veterans, separated by 40 years. They were followed by two saxophonists, David Murray and James Brandon Lewis. The latter has won the poll twice, and also finished 15th this year, with side credits on the Dave Douglas (13), Alan Braufman (23), and Giovanni Guide (75) albums. Murray has never placed higher than 14th before, but had we started earlier, or run retrospective polls, he very likely would have won a few — possibly starting with Ming in 1980. Pianist Matthew Shipp is another perennial contender with a long career, but his finishes in our poll years top out at 6 (2011), followed by 7 (2020) and 11 (2022).

In 9th and 10th, Fay Victor and [Ahmed] were newcomers to the poll. I didn’t bother with the Vocal/Latin/Debut categories for this poll — lots of voters never fill them out anyway — but Victor, with an impressive but rarely recognized 25-year career, would easily have won Vocal this year — followed by Arooj Aftab (26) and Amirtha Kidambi (30). By the way, her Herbie Nichols SUNG topped my ballot. The top Latin pick was probably Amaro Freitas, at 15. Choices in that category were always subjective, but no one obvious came close. And I have no idea who might have won Debut: I don’t see any eligible individuals in the top 50, but maybe Sarah Hanahan (57), or Ivanna Cuesta (83)?

Given the amount of flak Biden has taken over his age, maybe we should have a category for octogenarians. There we would have clear winners, with Charles Lloyd (86) in 2nd place, and Wadada Leo Smith (82) in 4th, with Kenny Barron (81) picking up the bronze at 24. Anthony Braxton just missed on both counts: he came in 26th, and is still just 79. No doubt age takes its toll, but in jazz we have some exceptions. Marshall Allen spent his 100th birthday playing a set at Vision Festival. I can’t point to his name in this poll, but that’s probably just because his new album with John Blum won’t be released until Aug. 21. (His Sun Ra Arkestra album came in 23 in 2022.)

The big surprise this year was [Ahmed], a British quartet led by veteran pianist Pat Thomas, with Seymour Wright (alto sax), Joel Grip (bass), and Antonin Gerbal (drums). They originally formed as a tribute band playing compositions by Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1927-93), and I loved their 2021 Nights on Saturn, but didn’t realize they had two releases this year: Wood Blues (at 43), and the 5-CD Giant Beauty (at 10, with one of the year’s highest points/votes ratios). One voter described them as “the best live band on the planet.” The best I could come up with was to compare them to the Cecil Taylor Unit with Jimmy Lyons in peak form.

Further down, you’ll find more wonders and curiosities. Dave Douglas finished higher than he had since 2013. Blue Note placed five albums between 11 and 20 (after only Lloyd made the top 10). Four artists in the 11-20 bracket were born outside America (Nduduzo Makhathini, Amaro Freitas, Melissa Aldana, Marta Sanchez). At 23, Kahil El’Zabar made his first appearance in the top-50, after dozens of albums.

Anthony Braxton lifted a 10-CD monster to 26. Kamasi Washington got a lot of press recognition in rock/pop pubs but wound up at 33 here (down from 12 in 2018 and 4 in 2015). I’m a little surprised that good records by Kenny Barron (24) and Matt Wilson (37) didn’t do better. Dave Rempis got his highest finish ever at 38, tied with Abdullah Ibrahim, and just above Tim Berne. The latter made five top-40 albums for the Swiss label Intakt (Universal-distributed ECM placed three albums).

Here are the top 50 New Releases:

1. Vijay Iyer, Compassion (ECM) 51.5 (27)
2. Charles Lloyd, The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note) 44.4 (27)
3. Mary Halvorson, Cloudward (Nonesuch) 43.5 (27)
4. Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers, Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (Red Hook) 34 (18)
5. Tomeka Reid Quartet, 3+3 (Cuneiform) 22.8 (14)
6. David Murray Quartet, Francesca (Intakt) 22.4 (12)
7. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Transfiguration (Intakt) 21.4 (15)
8. Matthew Shipp Trio, New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz (ESP-Disk) 20.4 (13)
9. Fay Victor, Herbie Nichols SUNG: Life Is Funny That Way (Tao Forms) 19.4 (10)
10. أحمد [Ahmed], Giant Beauty (Fönstret) 19.2 (9)
11. Nduduzo Makhathini, Unomkhubulwane (Blue Note) 16.9 (10)
12. Julian Lage, Speak to Me (Blue Note) 16.3 (9)
13. Dave Douglas, Gifts (Greenleaf Music) 15.4 (9)
14. Joel Ross, Nublues (Blue Note) 14.8 (9)
15. Amaro Freitas, Y’Y (Psychic Hotline) 14.8 (8)
16. The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (Impulse!) 14.7 (9)
17. Ches Smith, Laugh Ash (Pyroclastic) 14.6 (10)
18. Bill Frisell, Orchestras (Blue Note) 14.3 (9)
19. Melissa Aldana, Echoes of the Inner Prophet (Blue Note) 14.2 (10)
20. Marta Sanchez Trio, Perpetual Void (Intakt) 14.2 (9)
21. Chris Potter-Brad Mehldau-John Patitucci-Brian Blade, Eagle’s Point (Edition) 12.8 (9)
22. Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Open Me, a Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit (Spiritmuse) 12.6 (7)
23. Alan Braufman, Infinite Love Infinite Tears (Valley of Search) 11.1 (9)
24. Kenny Barron, Beyond This Place (Artwork) 11.1 (6)
25. Oded Tzur, My Prophet (ECM) 10.9 (6)
26. Anthony Braxton, 10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022 (Braxton House) 10.6 (7)
27. Arooj Aftab, Night Reign (Verve) 10.6 (5)
28. Borderlands Trio [Stephan Crump-Kris Davis-Eric McPherson], Rewilder (Intakt) 10.1 (7)
29. Jason Stein-Marilyn Crispell-Damon Smith-Adam Shead, Spi-raling Horn (Balance Point Acoustics) 10.1 (6)
30. Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones, New Monuments (We Jazz) 8.4 (4)
31. Jamie Baum Septet+, What Times Are These (Sunnyside) 8.3 (5)
32. John Escreet, The Epicenter of Your Dreams (Blue Room Music) 8.2 (6)
33. Kamasi Washington, Fearless Movement (Young) 8.2 (4)
34. Luke Stewart Silt Trio, Unknown Rivers (Pi) 8 (5)
35. Christian McBride & Edgar Meyer, But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody? (Mack Avenue) 7.9 (5)
36. Fred Hersch, Silent, Listening (ECM) 7.1 (5)
37. Kim Cass, Levs (Pi) 6.8 (3)
38. Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble (Palmetto) 6.7 (6)
39. Ballister, Smash and Grab (Aerophonic) 6.7 (5)
40. Abdullah Ibrahim, 3 (Gearbox) 6.7 (5)
41. Sunny Five [Tim Berne-David Torn-Ches Smith-Devin Hoff-Marc Ducret], Candid (Intakt) 6.6 (4)
42. Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few, The Almighty (Division 81) 6.5 (4)
43. SML, Small Medium Large (International Anthem) 6.4 (4)
44. أحمد [Ahmed], Wood Blues (Astral Spirits) 6.3 (4)
45. Brandon Ross Phantom Station, Off the End (Sunnyside) 6.3 (4)
46. Matt Mitchell, Illimitable (Obliquity) 6.2 (4)
47. Amanda Gardier, Auteur (Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson) (self-released) 6 (4)
48. Frank London/The Elders, Spirit Stronger Than Blood (ESP-Disk) 5.4 (4)
49. Pat Metheny, MoonDial (BMG) 5.4 (2)
50. Dan Weiss, Even Odds (Cygnus) 5.1 (5)

Complete results are on the project website.

Beyond that, nothing got more than three votes. We allowed voters to pick late 2023 releases, but very few did: Ambrose Akinmusire, Owl Song, got 4.2(2), followed by Paul Giallorenzo Trio, Play, with 3.8(3). The single-vote records start at 103, with 13 titles at 3.0(1). It gets very scattered after that, with the last batch of 1(1) albums at 281 — 81 of them, for 366 in all.

For me, the most remarkable feature was that more than half of the albums receiving votes weren’t yet in my tracking file. As I added them, I listened to several dozen, and that pushed my own lists to lengths I’ve rarely (if ever) seen this early in the year. To sort them out, I compiled a Best Jazz Albums of 2024 file. I sort my list by grades, and found myself with 59 A/A- jazz albums so far this year. Most years I wind up close to 80, so either this is shaping up as a very good year for jazz, I’m just much better informed at this point, or I’m getting soft in my old age. I will note, though, that 13 of my 59 didn’t get any votes in the poll, so extensive as it is, we’re still letting a fair number of albums slip through unrecognized.

The Rara Avis category covered previously unreleased albums recorded in 2013 or before, reissues of any vintage, and compilations. We allowed up to five albums per ballot, which most voters used, although 31 submitted short ballots, and 12 left the category empty. In all, 109 albums received votes. Several different kinds of records show up in this category, and it’s hard to compare them. One group would be new vinyl editions of classic albums, but their votes are few and widely scattered, so they rarely play in the top of the charts. The big Mosaic boxes that dominated in the early years of the poll have also dried up. There are also bunches of rarities, mostly on small European labels, by they are widely scattered.

So in recent years, the top picks have tended to be previously unreleased archival tapes or more definitive editions of well-known albums (often originally bootlegs). The winner this year, Alice Coltrane’s 1971 The Carnegie Hall Concert, is one of the former, while the close runner-up, Sonny Rollins’s 1959 Freedom Weaver, is among the latter (a chunk of it was previously released as St. Thomas in Stockholm). A cluster of labels have been extra busy this year, placing live sets at: 3 (Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy), 4 (Art Tatum), 6 (Sun Ra), 8 (Yusef Lateef), 11 & 12 (Cannonball Adderley), 13 (Shelly Manne), and 18 (Chet Baker & Jack Sheldon).

There are also a couple of notable cases where labels found archival tapes to represent recently deceased artists: Ron Miles, Old Main Chapel (5, from 2011); Tomasz Stanko, September Night (9, from 2004). Here are the top 21 from Rara Avis:

1. Alice Coltrane, The Carnegie Hall Concert (1971, Impulse!) 44.2 (28)
2. Sonny Rollins, Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European TourRecordings (Resonance) 41 (27)
3. Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy, The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (1995, Elemental Music) 37.2 (26)
4. Art Tatum, Jewels in the Treasure Box: The 1953 ChicagoBlue Note Jazz Club Recordings (Resonance) 32.4 (23)
5. Ron Miles, Old Main Chapel (2011, Blue Note) 24.4 (17)
6. Sun Ra, At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (Jazz Detective) 22.2 (17)
7. Charles Gayle-Milford Graves-William Parker, WEBO (1991, Black Editions Archive) 16.6 (10)
8. Yusef Lateef, Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert From Avignon (1972, Elemental Music) 13.2 (11)
9. Tomasz Stanko Quartet, September Night (2004, ECM) 12.6 (9)
10. Cecil Taylor Unit, Live at Fat Tuesday’s February 9, 1980 [First Visit] (1980, Ezz-Thetics) 10.4 (7)
11. Cannonball Adderley, Burnin’ in Bordeaux: Live in France 1969 (Elemental Music) 10.2 (8)
12. Cannonball Adderley, Poppin’ in Paris: Live at L’Olympia 1972 (Elemental Music) 6.6 (6)
13. Shelly Manne & His Men, Jazz From the Pacific Northwest (1958-66, Reel to Real) 6.4 (6)
14. Soft Machine, Høvikkoden 1971 (Cuneiform) 4 (3)
15. Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Pink Elephants on Parade (1985-90, Modern Harmonic) 4 (3)
16. Louis Armstrong, Louis in London (1968, Verve) 3.8 (3)
17. Karen Borca Trio Quartet & Quintet, Good News Blues: Live at the Vision Festival 1998 & 2005 (NoBusiness) 3.8 (3)
18. Chet Baker & Jack Sheldon, In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album (1972, Jazz Detective) 3.6 (3)
19. Bobby Hutcherson, Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963-1970 (Mosaic) 3.6 (3)
20. Nat King Cole, Live at the Blue Note Chicago (1953, Iconic) 3.6 (2)
21. Tony Oxley, Angular Apron (1992, Corbett vs. Dempsey) 3.6 (2)

Complete results are on the project website.

Already for me, this poll has been a marvelous prospecting tool, as close to half of all the albums that received votes were previously unknown to me. (One of the lists I keep is my prospecting file. I add records to it when I notice they might be of interest, including everything voted for here.) Those have in turn driven much of my recent listening for my Music Week posts, and that has in turn inflated my Best Jazz Albums of 2024 file — a constant exercise in “so-farism” — to a hitherto unprecedented level so early in the year.

The other thing I’ve gotten out of this experiment is an even greater respect for the devotion and expertise of my fellow critics. Especially for the following, who generously contributed to this poll: Karl Ackermann, Paul Acquaro, Scott Albin, Hrayr Attarian, Chris Barton, Joe Bebco, Dan Bilawsky, Philip Booth, Mike Borella, Stuart Broomer, Bill Brownlee, Dan Buskirk, Jeff Cebulski, John Chacona, Gary Chapin, J.D. Considine, Mark Corroto, Michael Coyle, David Cristol, Steve Dollar, Laurence Donohue-Greene, Ken Dryden, Chuck Eddy, Lee Rice Epstein, Steve Feeney, Gary Finney, Filipe Freitas, Pat Frisco, Ana Gavrilovska, Richard Gehr, Kurt Gottschalk, Stephen Graham, Jason Gross, James Hale, Eyal Hareuveni, Chris Heim, Andrey Henkin, Geoffrey Himes, Rob Hoff, Larry Hollis, Tom Hull, Jim Hynes, Martin Johnson, T.R. Johnson, Sanford Josephson, Ammar Kalia, Richard B. Kamins, George Kanzler, Fred Kaplan, Yoshi Kato, Glenn Kenny, James Koblin, Elzy Kolb, Will Layman, Lance Liddle, Suzanne Lorge, Brad Luen, Paul Medrano, Allen Michie, Milo Miles, Roz Milner, Rick Mitchell, Chris Monsen, John Frederick Moore, Greg Morton, Stuart Nicholson, Fotis Nikolakopoulos, Tim Niland, Phil Overeem, Annie Parnell, Sergio Piccirilli, Derk Richardson, Britt Robson, Gene Seymour, Rob Shepherd, Stewart Smith, Jeffrey St. Clair, Mark Sullivan, Dave Sumner, Derek Taylor, Michael Toland, Ludwig vanTrikt, Fabricio Vieira, Philip Watson, Ken Waxman, Jason Weiss, Ken Weiss, Michael J. West, Richard Williams, Jerome Wilson.

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Tom Hull studied sociology and worked in engineering, but also wrote rock criticism in the 1970s, and the Village Voice’s Jazz Consumer Guide from 2005 to 2011. He continues to blog, and has over 20,000 short reviews on his website