Since 2013, NPR Music has published the annual Jazz Critics Poll, founded by Francis Davis in 2006 and originally published by the Village Voice. It’s the largest annual poll of its kind, with up to 150 jazz critics participating in any given year. This year’s poll — “the 8th Annual, and First Post-Apocalyptic, NPR Jazz Critics Poll,” as Davis put it — highlights the very best jazz albums that managed to light up a dark, unsettling year.
Alongside the poll, we shared a reflection from Davis on the year — an “annus horribilis if there ever was one,” as he put it, for reasons both personal and global. Plus, jazz critic Nate Chinen surveys the loss that pervaded the year in jazz — in lives, livelihoods, legacies and communities — and how that loss demands changes to old ideas about critical objectivity.
This week we also shared a separate piece from contributor Lara Pellegrinelli and a team of independent reporters, commissioned by NPR Music, that analyzes the results of previous Jazz Critics Polls to see what quantifiable data could reveal about the role of gender in the poll and the status of women jazz artists more generally. The findings: The presence of women musicians throughout the ranks of the poll — whether as leaders or co-leaders of projects, or as sidemen on recordings — has not made consistent gains since the poll began in 2006. |
| All Songs Considered New Music Friday is back for 2021! |
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