DownBeat

Categories	Music magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Founded	1934; 91 years ago (1934)[1]
Company	Maher Publications
Country	United States
Based in	Chicago,Illinois, U.S.
Language	English
Website	downbeat.com
ISSN	0012-5768

DownBeat (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz,blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 inChicago,Illinois. It is named after the "downbeat" in music, also called "beat one", or the first beat of a musical measure.

DownBeat publishes results of annual surveys of both its readers and critics in a variety of categories. TheDownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame includes winners from both the readers' and critics' poll. The results of the readers' poll are published in the December issue, those of the critics' poll in the August issue. Since 2008, the Hall of Fame also includes winners from the Veterans Committee.

Popular features ofDownBeat magazine include its "Reviews" section where jazz critics, using a '1-Star to 5-Star' maximum rating system, rate the latest musical recordings, vintage recordings, and books; articles on individual musicians and music forms; and its famous "Blindfold Test" column, in which a musician listens to records by other artists, tries to guess who they are, and rates them using the 5-star maximum rating system.

DownBeat was established in 1934 inChicago, Illinois.^[2] In September 1939, the magazine announced that its circulation had increased from "a few hundred five years ago to more than 80,000 copies a month", and that it would change from monthly to fortnightly from the following month.^[3] In Summer 1960DownBeat launched theJapanese edition.^[4] In 1972 the publisher of the magazine was Maher Publishers.^[5] Starting in July 1979,DownBeat went to a monthly schedule for the first time since 1939.

DownBeat was named Jazz Publication of the Year in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 by theJazz Journalists Association.^[6]

TheDownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame's current membership, by year, is listed in the following table. The Readers' Poll began in 1952, the Critics' Poll in 1961, and the Veterans Committee Poll in 2008.^[7]

• TheMary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award
• International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE)
• BBC Jazz Awards
• NEA Jazz Masters

• Down Beat website
• "AboutDown Beat: A History As Rich As Jazz"
• TheJazz Journalists Association Lifetime Achievement Award
• Nesuhi Ertegun,Jazz Hall of FameArchived December 23, 2010, at theWayback Machine
• Arts For ArtArchived May 1, 2012, at theWayback Machine Lifetime Achievement Award
• NAMM Oral History Interview with Kevin Maher January 25, 2014

• Blues music magazines
• Jazz awards
• Jazz magazines published in the United States
• Magazines established in 1934
• Magazines published in Chicago
• Monthly magazines published in the United States
• Music magazines published in the United States

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from April 2021
• Webarchive template wayback links