Результаты ежегодного опроса критиков журналом Downbeat / Critics Poll

1961 Coleman Hawkins 1962 Bix Beiderbecke 1963 Jelly Roll Morton 1964 Art Tatum 1965 Earl Hines 1966 Charlie Christian 1967 Bessie Smith 1968 Sidney Bechet & Fats Waller 1969 Pee Wee Russell & Jack Teagarden 1970 Johnny Hodges 1971 Roy Eldridge & Django Reinhardt 1972 Clifford Brown 1973 Fletcher Henderson 1974 Ben Webster 1975 Cecil Taylor 1976 King Oliver 1977 Benny Carter 1978 Rahsaan Roland Kirk 1979 Lennie Tristano 1980 Max Roach 1981 Bill Evans 1982 Fats Navarro 1983 Albert Ayler 1984 Sun Ra 1985 Zoot Sims 1986 Gil Evans 1987 Johnny Dodds, Thad Jones, Teddy Wilson 1988 Kenny Clarke 1989 Chet Baker 1990 Mary Lou Williams 1991 John Carter 1992 James P. Johnson 1993 Ed Blackwell 1994 Frank Zappa 1995 Julius Hemphill 1996 Artie Shaw 1997 Tony Williams 1998 Elvin Jones 1999 Betty Carter 2000 Lester Bowie 2001 Milt Hinton 2002 John Lewis 2003 Wayne Shorter 2004 Roy Haynes 2005 Steve Lacy 2006 Jackie McLean 2007 Andrew Hill 2008 Joe Zawinul 2009 Hank Jones 2010 Chick Corea 2011 Abbey Lincoln 2012 Paul Motian 2013 Charlie Haden 2014 Jim Hall 2015 Lee Konitz 2016 Randy Weston 2017 Don Cherry 2018 Benny Golson