Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
In last year’s Readers Poll, pianist Chick Corea was voted the Jazz Artist of the Year. Will he repeat this year? Only our readers can decide.
(Photo: Courtesy of the artist)Votes are pouring in for the 81st Annual DownBeat Readers Poll, which opened on July 1. Readers will vote in 34 categories, and the results will be published in DownBeat’s December issue.
In last year’s Readers Poll, pianist Chick Corea was voted the Jazz Artist of the Year, and his trio album Trilogy (Stretch/Concord) took the honor for Jazz Album of the Year.
Who will win this year? That will be determined by tens of thousands of voters from around the world. (The 2015 Readers Poll had a total of 28,496 voters.)
In addition to voting in diverse categories such as Big Band, Historical Album, Baritone Saxophone, Drums, Composer and Blues Album, readers will cast ballots to induct musicians into the DownBeat Hall of Fame.
In recent years, DownBeat readers have voted to induct Tony Bennett (2015), B.B. King (2014), Pat Metheny (2013) and Ron Carter (2012).
Besides the world-famous Readers Poll, DownBeat also publishes an annual Critics Poll. The complete results of the DownBeat Critics Poll are published in the August issue, which arrives on the newsstand on July 19. To see the winners of this year’s Critics Poll, click here.
Now it’s time for the readers to weigh in with their opinions on the top musicians and albums of the year. To vote in this year’s Readers Poll, please click here.
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
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In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
Lettuce, from left: Eric Coomes, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Eric Bloom, Adam Smirnoff and Nigel Hall
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They were Berklee misfits. Neither jazzy enough for the straightahead crowd at Boston’s highly prestigious College of…
New Orleans Trad Jazz Camp
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Jazz camps have exploded around the globe as a summertime tradition for working on your chops and making new friends.…
Blindfold Test proctor Ted Panken, left, with the Grammy-winning Nicole Zuraitis.
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After earning the 2024 Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy for her seventh album, How Love Begins (La Reserve), comprising 12…
