Tom Hull
This was one of the closest New Jazz Albums contests ever.
Since 2014, the category has been dominated by previously unreleased music, mostly live shots.
While the intent of this category was to prod critics into exploring Latin Jazz, it has been dominated by a small number of artists.
It takes a peculiar combination of talent and luck to win this category. By luck, I mean getting your one-and-only shot at a debut album enough promotion to be recognized.
By far, the hardest part of this job is rounding up voters.
In recent years, the category has been dominated by Cécile McLorin Salvant, who won handily again this year, her seventh time, one for each of her albums.
We are all part of a community with a deep commitment to this extraordinary but way-too-often unappreciated musical art, and the late critic Francis Davis believed we should work together and share what we know. His poll was one important way to do just that
For many years now, we’ve collected brief lists of important jazz figures who passed in the previous year.
The creative force behind jazz is so strong and so universal that the music will continue to sustain us through whatever perils and calamities the upper echelons of business and politics land us in.
The 20th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: The Institution Continues
Onwards for an invaluable poll from a community of critics that gives us a map to an expansive world of jazz to explore — with hints at terra incognita.
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