Jazz
Jazz Album Review: Kris Davis Expresses Environmental Grief Through Music in “The Solastalgia Suite”
In its evocativeness, shapeliness, and meaningful drama, “Solastalgia Suite” is Kris Davis’s masterpiece… so far.
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.
By Andrey Henkin For 2025, my Jazz Passings website accumulated 1,028 entries, with 242 receiving detailed write-ups, far shy of 1,211 and 308 from 2024. That said, it did feel, purely subjectively, like there were so many more major passings in 2025 than in recent memory. Statistical analysis doesn’t back that up, but people’s feelings…
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.
2025 turned out to be a feast year for devotees of soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. The music found on both of these releases could be thought of as exemplifying three areas Bloom has explored in depth and refined to purity.
The magazine’s jazz critics look back over the past year and highlight their favorite albums.
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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