Результаты ежегодного опроса читателей журналом Downbeat / The Readers' Poll

1952 Louis Armstrong 1953 Glenn Miller 1954 Stan Kenton 1955 Charlie Parker 1956 Duke Ellington 1957 Benny Goodman 1958 Count Basie 1959 Lester Young 1960 Dizzy Gillespie 1961 Billie Holiday 1962 Miles Davis 1963 Thelonious Monk 1964 Eric Dolphy 1965 John Coltrane 1966 Bud Powell 1967 Billy Strayhorn 1968 Wes Montgomery 1969 Ornette Coleman 1970 Jimi Hendrix 1971 Charles Mingus 1972 Gene Krupa 1973 Sonny Rollins 1974 Buddy Rich 1975 Cannonball Adderley 1976 Woody Herman 1977 Paul Desmond 1978 Joe Venuti 1979 Ella Fitzgerald 1980 Dexter Gordon 1981 Art Blakey 1982 Art Pepper 1983 Stéphane Grappelli 1984 Oscar Peterson 1985 Sarah Vaughan 1986 Stan Getz 1987 Lionel Hampton 1988 Jaco Pastorius 1989 Woody Shaw 1990 Red Rodney 1991 Lee Morgan 1992 Maynard Ferguson 1993 Gerry Mulligan 1994 Dave Brubeck 1995 J. J. Johnson 1996 Horace Silver 1997 Nat King Cole 1998 Frank Sinatra 1999 Milt Jackson 2000 Clark Terry 2001 Joe Henderson 2002 Antonio Carlos Jobim 2003 Ray Brown 2004 McCoy Tyner 2005 Herbie Hancock 2006 Jimmy Smith 2007 Michael Brecker 2008 Keith Jarrett 2009 Freddie Hubbard 2010 Muhal Richard Abrams 2011 Ahmad Jamal 2012 Ron Carter 2013 Pat Metheny 2014 B.B. King 2015 Tony Bennett 2016 Phil Woods 2017 Wynton Marsalis 2018 Ray Charles