The 2019 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll
Below are the results of NPR Music's 7th Annual Jazz Critics Poll (my 14th, going back to the poll's beginnings in the Village Voice). 2019's results provided surprise after surprise. The only predictable winner was in Latin Jazz: Miguel Zenon's Sonero, the alto saxophonist's fifth victory in this category. But Eric Dolphy's Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions upset a "new" John Coltrane album in Reissue/Discovery. Relative newcomer Jazzmeia Horn's Love and Liberation won in Vocal. The winner in Debut is annually a newcomer, of course, and in 2019 this was Joel Ross, for KingMaker. But the biggest surprises of all were in the voting for Album of the Year, with an unprecedented five women in the Top 10, all for the first time, and Kris Davis finishing on top, for her self-released Diatom Ribbons.
We're repeating an experiment we introduced last year. You'll again find a capsule review of each album in the Top 10, but instead of me doing all the heavy lifting, we've asked a critic who voted for that album to weigh in. The same with the top finisher in Vocal, Debut, Latin and Rara Avis. And as a bonus, we've added a few capsules about solitary No. 1s: albums appearing only on a single ballot, but as that critic's top pick.
Including my own choices and analysis, and the individual ballots of all 140 participants, there should be enough here to keep you reading — and listening — for the next 12 months. —Francis Davis
New Albums
1. Kris Davis
Diatom Ribbons (Pyroclastic)
Points: 260
Votes: 37
At a glance, an odd candidate for consensus: Kris Davis, an by drawing inspiration from oceanic microbiology, tectonic movement and piano precursors ranging from Messiaen to Monk to Cecil Taylor. What makes her experiment feel seamless is the deep cohesion of some elite company: a core trio with Val Jeanty on turntables and Terri Lyne Carrington on drums, opening up to the earthy enlightenment of a pair of hardy tenor saxophonists (Tony Malaby, JD Allen) a couple of spark plug guitarists (Marc Ribot, Nels Cline), and a handful of others (like Esperanza Spalding, in two arresting vocal cameos). It easily could have felt like an Event album, but Davis and her wrecking crew produce something rarer: an album of volatile heat and fractured funk that mysteriously forms an alluring contour line.
