The results of Downbeat’s 69th Annual Critics Poll inspired me to discover and listen to a few artists. And to re-listen to a few others.

You’ll hear some of what I discovered on this episode.

I start with some new members placed into the ‘hall of fame. This year it was Kenny Barron. And the jazz ‘veterans’ committee made another choice: somebody I’d never heard of, a trumpeter who died in 1961 at the age of 23. Anybody familiar with Booker Little?

I also play selections from the Big Band category, male vocal, and some so-called ‘rising stars’.

Quite a few Canadian jazz artists made the critics lists as well, and I play something by two of them: both women.