July 2026 – The Necessary Blues

The results from the 2026 mid-year Francis Davis Jazz Poll were published a little over a week ago at Arts Fuse, and I had the honor to again participate in the poll. You can find the poll results here, which are framed by extensive essays by tireless poll runner Tom Hull, analyzing the results and discussing much about the poll’s history. Many thanks to Hull for keeping this institution going after the passing of founder Davis last year. Having a platform like this poll is essential for an art form that centers sounds and ideas outside the mainstream, and the poll offers exposure and support to musicians creating art that is diverse, representative, and sustaining for a community of creators and fans. While I think the support for the arts is the most salutary function of the poll, it’s also a sheer bounty for the music fan. In this year’s mid-year poll, 127 voters picked 462 new jazz albums, and 137 reissues/archival picks, many of which I didn’t even know existed. So the poll is a fantastic way of being exposed to new music for the listener, and gathering some consensus around art that matters even more in an ever more fractured and negative world.

I recommend you take some time and explore the full results, but here are the top ten new jazz albums from the poll, with the points awarded by ranked voting and the number of voters that picked that album:

1. Tyshawn Sorey | Members . . . Don’t! | Pi | 78.8 | 45 |

4. [Ahmed] | Play Monk (Otoroku) | 40.9 | 20 |

10. Mark Turner | Patternmaster | ECM | 20.8 | 14 |

So, I’d like to share some of my thoughts about where my listening and the poll winners intersect, and also my personal favorites. My own ballot is below.

While the range of musical styles and approaches under the umbrella of “jazz” is as diverse as ever, the Francis Davis mid-year poll revealed a real consensus around the first and (close second) place finishers, both McArthur “genius” recipients. For poll winner Tyshawn Sorey, reimagining the music of the Max Roach classic Members, Don’t Git Weary is a great concept and a new high point in his association with jazz independent label Pi Recordings. However, Members . . . Don’t! snuck up on me a bit, and in fact, I would have thought the winner would have been second place Tomeka Reid.

Reid too has long been one of the musicians to watch, especially through her association with guitarist Mary Halvorson, both in the Tomeka Reid Quartet as well as their playing together with Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet. The simpatico language of Reid and Halvorson is a large part of why the delightful Dance! Skip! Hop! is the most replayable jazz record of the year so far. My LP copy has been spinning almost nonstop, and I put Reid at #5 on my list.

Trumpet phenom Adam O’Farrill seems to be everywhere these days. He’s in Halvorson’s pacesetting band Ameryllis, and the trumpet foil to Sorey on the poll winner Member’s . . . Don’t!. His trumpet solos never fail to dazzle, and he lights up every band he’s in. I also loved O’Farrill’s 2024 album HUESO, which features an idiosyncratic and inviting approach to rhythm, driven by bassist Walter Stinson and O’Farrill’s brother Zack on drums. At #3 in the poll, O’Farrill’s new album (and new band), both called ELEPHANT, features another groove-based concept, but with a much different, lighter feel than HUESO. The difference maker here is another rising star, pianist Yvonne Rogers, whose touch and use of space are as unique here as on her great album from this year, The Button Jar (#44 in the poll – I wrote about Rogers here).

ELEPHANT is on Out of Your Head records, which I want to make a special mention of here. For an independent label only 8 years old (run by bassist Adam Hopkins), Out of Your Head has gained a prominent position and consistently issues the kind of creative music voters in the Francis Davis poll are attracted to. Not only did Out of Your Head have the #2 and #3 albums, but was also just outside the top ten too (#11 is the unique prepared piano of Marta Sanchez on For the Space You Left), and #28 with Columbia Icefield’s A Silence Opens (which was my number #1, see below). Also, I’ll shout out Christopher Hoffman’s REX, (issued by Out of Your Head in January), which showcases a unique blend of solo acoustic and amplified cello, and Out of Your Head has at least one more blockbuster in the works for later this year, Marty Ehrlich’s OPEN AIR: The Complete Saxophone Quartet Compositions of Julius Hemphill. It’s only the end of July, but not too early to crown Out of Your Head jazz label of the year!

I also need to mention a longtime personal favorite, the quartet [Ahmed], (#4 in the poll, #2 on my list) and its pianist, Pat Thomas. The prolific Thomas always has multiple releases to consider. (Just this year there’s Bagman’s Playgrounds, Celebrating Monk with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, and the epic Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)* with Thomas and XT (Paul Abbott and Seymour Wright). But it’s [Ahmed], with Thomas’s thundering piano abetted by blistering sax from Wright and the powerful rhythms of drummer Antonin Gerbal and bassist Joel Grip, that has taken creative music by storm. Recorded in sessions adjacent to last year’s [Sama’a] (Audition), which were the group’s first studio documentation, taking on Monk was both a natural choice and a sure-fire hit. On Play Monk, [Ahmed] assuredly sound like themselves as they use Monk’s tunes as a vehicle to develop the group’s trademark steamroller vamps, but the spirit of the composer is here too, especially in Thomas’s irreverent, playful comping. I’ll never stop loving Thomas and this band.

Play Monk is on the imprint of Cafe Oto, Otoruku, which means that the 1-4 spots in the poll are all taken by independent labels, something that I think is worth celebrating. [Ahmed] is also a European band on a European label appearing in the top five, also a notable event for an American poll that originated out of largely NYC area critics. The poll has a growing number of European voters, a change reflected in a growing number of European poll finishers. One of those at #8 is Cologne, Germany-based Angelika Niescier, whose totally burning Chicago Tapes was my #9 pick. Niescier is a great reflection of the more international flavor of jazz, as she’s recorded a string of collaborations with American musicians, my favorite probably being the incredible 2023 date with Tomeka Reid and drummer Savannah Harris, Beyond Dragons. With Chicago Tapes, Niescier brings her saxophone to play with the best of Chicago (plus NYC-based Luke Stewart). What really put this album over the top for me is the absolutely burning interactions of Niescier’s alto with flutist Nicole Mitchell and the saxes of Dave Rempis. The highlights of Chicago Tapes, like on the track “Exit 17,” are the most incendiary music so far this year.

Chicago Tapes is on Swiss-based Intakt, one of the most important independent labels supporting music on both sides of the Atlantic. The balance of the top ten was on the “major” labels of jazz, with Nonesuch at #5 with Ambrose Akinmusire & Mary Halvorson’s Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings, Blue Note at #6 and #7 with Bill Frisell’s In My Dreams and Immanuel Wilkins’ Live at the Village Vanguard, and ECM (yes, an independent, but with the stature and resources of the majors) at #10 with Mark Turner’s Patternmaster. I won’t talk about the music on those albums as I need to spend more time with them, but Akinmusire, Halvorson, Frisell, Wilkins, and Turner are at the highest level of music making, so I know I’ll be appreciating these great records as the year goes on.

So now I use my remaining time with you to talk about my ballot, which appears at the bottom of this post. The Francis Davis #2, #4, and #8 poll finishers were also in my top ten, and I discussed those above. However, right now my favorite new jazz album of 2026 is Columbia Icefield’s A Silence Opens, also out on Out of Your Head Records (it appeared as #28 in the poll). Even the thought of this album was so emotional that I had to wait until I was ready to listen. The music was recorded by trumpet player Nate Wooley with his group Columbia Icefield, and initially conceived as a tribute to his mentor Ron Miles, who died in 2022. A Silence Opens was recorded with guitarist Ava Mendoza (replacing Mary Halvorsen in the band), drummer Ryan Sayer, and legendary steel guitar player Susan Alcorn. Together they recorded material that includes Ron Miles songs like “Howard Beach” and “Darken My Door.” However, they had captured less than an album’s worth of material when Alcorn suddenly passed away in January 2025. Wooley’s solution to finish the album lifts the music even further in my view: he recorded additional tracks using a favorite melody of Alcorn’s, Victor Jara’s “El Derecho de Vivir en Paz,” which appears in four different versions, one with a chorus of Alcorn’s friends and colleagues. The “double tribute” makes this a heavy album for sure, but I think Wooley has succeeded on every musical and emotional level. It’s a gift to hear Alcorn’s pedal steel introduction on “We Say Goodbye Twice/Wildwood Flower” and to hear her in such an impressive context. I’ll be next to enjoying this album especially as “late night” listening next to the Liberation Music Orchestra, and Alcorn’s own classics, Soledad (2015) and Canto (2023), both on Relative Pitch.

I was also moved by another elegiac release, Sei Miguel’s posthumous Viva!. Actually, it’s another double elegy, for the great Portuguese-based trumpet player and composer who died at age 64 last November, and also because Viva! is the last release from the essential Clean Feed label, now closing after 25 years. It’s on Clean Feed that I first heard Sei Miguel, when the always-active Portuguese label simultaneously released Miguel’s albums The Original Drum and Road Music in 2023. I wrote a bit about the music here, and then kept on listening. I had never heard a player make such patient use of space and time, and I also recently enjoyed an extended profile on the essential Destination Out radio show (archived here). Viva! captures two live 2023 performances of O Carro de Fogo de Sei Miguel, a group assembled by Miguel that uses guitars, organ, percussion, and two brass and reeds. The music is often striking, and like all of Miguel’s output, meditative and fascinating.

When I first heard Michael Formanek’s New Digs in February (#3 on my list and #22 in the poll), I knew it would be on this list. Formanek, who relocated to Portugal after the pandemic, assembled a powerful international band for this album. At the core of the group is the guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, which with Formanek, is the group Thumbscrew. The three-horn front line encapsulates the transatlantic concept – Brooklyn-based Chet Doxas adds tenor sax, fellow New York to Portugal expat John O’Gallagher plays alto (they both play clarinet too), and they are joined by Portuguese trumpet star João Almeida. Maybe the biggest X-factor for this band’s sound is British pianist Alexander Hawkins, who joins here on organ. His Hammond B-3 brings a dark, wild undertow that combines delightfully with the complex horn charts. But the main attraction remains Formanek’s fantastic writing and arranging. If you want to know why Formanek is one of the most original and important writers on music, New Digs is a great place to start.

One of the other last records from Clean Feed (in a joint release with Zavod Sploh) is Bare, Unfolding from European pianist and composer Kaja Draksler. I wrote about the album in February, and still have the same impression: I haven’t heard anything quite like it before, except maybe for Draksler’s prior mesmerizing albums, Gledalec (2017) and Out For Stars (2020) (both on Clean Feed as well). Who knew that combining Baroque music, poetry, and free jazz would be so compelling?

Three more albums round out my top ten: I’m a big fan of guitarist Miles Okazaki, and Boomtown makes use of an incredible band to realize music inspired by a cross-country road trip, which is sometimes dreamy, sometimes fiery. Prepared piano has been a thing so far this year, with lots of contenders, but for me, Magda Mayas most effectively turned the piano into something else. On Chant, the ambient sounds she gets from the instrument (albeit with sound engineering and post-production) are so good that they make it unrecognizable; the album keeps me coming back for its tranquil beauty. Finally, Caroline Davis is one of the featured musicians on Okazaki’s Boomtown and has long been one of the most exciting creators in NYC; with her album Fallows, she plays a solo recital of sax and electronics that delights with spry invention and beautiful pacing. Another CD that’s spinning on repeat.

So these were my favorite news albums in jazz so far this year, but the outpouring of new music is so great that it’s impossible to listen to much of it. Ask me tomorrow, and I’ll surely have a different list. That brings me to another point I alluded to before – I have not yet listened to many of the poll winners (and am eager to look forward to catching up). Nobody can keep up with everything, another reason why the poll is so helpful. And here’s a related point about how the times we live in affect the attention that’s needed to appreciate art. Honestly, the world has become such a negative place that it’s often difficult to concentrate, even when a temporary escape from reality is healthy and much-needed. I know that affected the way I’ve listened (or not listened to) some albums, the Francis Davis poll winner being an example. I love Tyshawn Sorey and knew long before its release that Members . . . Don’t! is an album that I needed to hear. And I did listen, but have not yet given it the undivided attention it deserves, so I opted out of including it in my list for now. Maybe that sounds like an excuse, but I find it reassuring that, like much of the great music already out in the world, it’s waiting for me to catch up. We are all blessed for this bounty of riches, and I give thanks to the creators of this music and the community that makes it all happen.

I didn’t talk about the archival picks (newly released albums recorded more than 10 years ago or reissues), where the poll allows five picks. My list mostly betrays my love of Julius Hemphill, who I consider the avatar of the music I want to write about on this blog. So far this year, we’ve had the good fortune to have the definitive reissue of the epic Dogon A.D., overseen by keeper of the flame Marty Erlich, and Circle the Heart, the issue of an archival tape with Erlich playing a vibrant duo concert with Hemphill. They were my #1 and #2. Just as the world can’t have enough Hemphill, I can’t listen to enough of English trumpet great Kenny Wheeler, and What Was is a first-time issue of an album that was somehow shelved after it was recorded in 1995. Only one track was put out at the time on the 2003 album Dream Sequence, and it’s a blast hearing the rest. Of course, Wheeler sounds amazing, yet I was only one of two voters who put it on their ballot. Maybe people will come around for the end-of-year poll.

Plenty of voters supported the Marion Brown vault find on the Live in Europe 1968 & 1972, which was my #3 and #9 in the poll results. It’s another incredible vault discovery from Lithuanian-based No Business records, which features a compelling quartet with vibraphone player Gunter Hampel and (even better) the only known live recording performance of Brown’s “Afternoon of a Georgia Faun.” Magical, and not to be missed. The archival section of the poll was dominated by Zev Feldman’s Elemental Music/Time Traveler/Resonance Records imprints, which released a torrent of archival albums in April around Record Store Day. I really enjoyed the Mal Waldron release Stardust & Starlight: At the Jazz Showcase (#11 in the poll), but the release of much-bootlegged 1968 Cecil Taylor concert issued by Feldman as Fragments Live at Salle Pleyel, Paris, 1969 felt essential and rounds out my archival picks. Sam Rivers joins Jimmy Lyons, Andrew Cyrille, and Taylor, and the power they unleash should be harnessed as a new form of renewable energy. The voters more than agreed, and it was #1 in the poll for what Francis Davis called “Rara Avis.”

As I said at the top, it was an honor to again be invited to the poll. But the real honor is to help support the musicians by spreading the word about art that needs to be supported and appreciated by all who care to listen. Jazz, or maybe let’s call it contemporary creative music, was in a bygone time the popular music of America. Now it’s an outsider art that’s maybe not well understood, but jazz has also developed from a community-based folk art to a democratized and global language that can be learned and consumed by anybody, anywhere. I think jazz may be in its most exciting phase ever, but maybe it’s most precarious too. It takes a community who cares about this art form to protect it and make it grow, and I think this poll has an important role in that too.

Here’s my picks!

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS:

1. Columbia Icefield [Nate Wooley], A Silence Opens (Out of Your Head)

2. [Ahmed], Play Monk (Otoroku)

3. Michael Formanek, New Digs (Intakt)

4. Kaja Draksler Octet, Bare, Unfolding (Zavod Sploh/Clean Feed)

5. The Tomeka Reid Quartet, Dance! Skip! Hop! (Out of Your Head)

6. Miles Okazaki, Boomtown (Pi)

7. Magda Mayas, Chant (Unsounds)

8. Sei Miguel, Viva! (Clean Feed)

9. Angelika Niescier, Chicago Tapes (Intakt)

10. Caroline Davis, Fallows (Ropeadope)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

1. Julius Hemphill, Dogon A.D. (1972, New World)

2. Marty Ehrlich & Julius Hemphill, Circle the Heart (1982, Relative Pitch)

3. Kenny Wheeler Sextet, What Was (1995, False Walls)

4. Marion Brown, Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 (NoBusiness)

5. Cecil Taylor Unit, Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts (Elemental Music)

Month: July 2026

TNB 2026 Midyear Jazz Picks and the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll