For the 3rd year running, I participated in the Francis Davis run Jazz Critics Poll, this year (and hopefully for the coming years; it looks rather good, I'd say) hosted by NPR Music. The results were posted last night. Can't say I'm that surprised by the winner – artist as well as label name recognition and reverence playing its part, maybe. Though I too liked Wayne Shorter's album fine, I didn't and still don't find it worthy of a spot in my top 25, let alone top ten jazz releases of the year.
Five of my picks made the top 50, Steve Coleman's Functional Arrythmias (5) Barry Altschul's The 3Dom Factor (18), Matana Roberts' COIN COIN Chapter Two..., Eric Revis Trio's City of Asylum (44) and Mostly Other People Do the Killing's Slippery Rock (45). Glad to see Mary Halvorson's Illusionary Sea, another album I enjoyed this year yet didn't include in my votes, in the top ten. My full ballot can be accessed here, and you'll be able to access the other ballots via that link too. I'd also urge you to read Davis' accompanying essay.
Addendum: as I've mentioned in previous years, the reissue category is somewhat hurt by the fact that not everybody is sent or can access box sets by such labels as Mosaic. Their release of Clifford Jordan's The Compete Strata-East Sessions could very likely have made my ballot, based on the music I'm familiar with from that set, yet I couldn't bring myself to vote for a release I hadn't had the chance to hear in its entirety.
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