2021 in jazz

This is a timeline documenting events of jazz in the year 2021.

2021 in jazz
Maria Schneider, whose album Data Lords was voted best of 2020 by critics in January 2021
Decade	2020s in jazz
Music	2021 in music
Standards	List of jazz standards
See also	2020 in jazz – 2022 in jazz

List of years in jazz
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This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Events

January

• January 14 – The 2020 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll rates Maria Schneider's Data Lords as the best album of 2020.^[1]

February

March

• March 14 - The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards occur.^[2] Jazz winners include:
  • Kurt Elling wins Best Jazz Vocal Album for his 2019 album Secrets are the Best Stories
  • Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade win Best Jazz Instrumental Album for their 2021 album Trilogy 2^[3]
  • The Maria Schneider Orchestra wins Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for its 2020 album Data Lords
  • Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra win Best Latin Jazz Album for their album Four Questions

April

May

June

July

• July 30 - Shabaka Hutchings from Sons Of Kemet founds a new UK Jazz record label, "Native Rebel Recordings"^[4]
  • July 30-August 1 – The Newport Jazz Festival takes place in the US state of Rhode Island. Performers include Gerald Clayton, Charles Lloyd, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty, Kamasi Washington and Brandee Younger.^[5]

August

September

October

• October 21 - Takuya Kuroda releases "Midnight Crisp" ^[6]

November

December

• December 4 - Promises (Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra album) is named album of the year 2021 by TIME magazine^[7]

Albums

Month	Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
March	5	Flor	Gretchen Parlato	Edition Records	Received nomination for Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album[8]	[9]
		Road to the Sun	Pat Metheny	Sony BMG		[10]
	26	Daring Mind	Jihye Lee Orchestra	Motema Music		[11]
	26	Promises	Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra	Luaka Bop		[12]
April	9	Uneasy (album)	Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey	ECM Records		[13][14]
May	14	Black To The Future	Sons Of Kemet	Impulse! Records		[15][16]
	28	Another Land	Dave Holland	Edition Records	with Kevin Eubanks and Obed Calvaire	[17]
		Nafs at Peace	Jaubi	Astigmatic Records		[18]
June	11	Squint	Julian Lage	Blue Note Records		[19]
July	9	Now Pronouncing	Caity Gyorgy		Awarded Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year[20]	[21]
August	20	Martian Kitties	Gordon Grdina and Jim Black			[22]
	27	Sounds from the Ancestors	Kenny Garrett	Mack Avenue Records		[23]
September	3	Kinds of Love	Renee Rosnes	Smoke Sessions Records		[24][25]
	10	Side-Eye (V1. IV)	Pat Metheny	BMG Modern Recordings		[26]
	14	The Cave Of Winds	Tony Malaby	Pyroclastic		[27]
	24	Songwrights Apothecary Lab	Esperanza Spalding	Concord Records	Awarded Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album[28]	[29]
October	8	SuperBlue	Kurt Elling	Edition Records		[30]
November	12	Crisis	Louis Hayes	Savant Records		[31]
	19	A Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday	Jack DeJohnette, Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith	TUM Records		[32]
December	3	New Standards	Kenny G	Concord Records		[33]

Deaths

• January 6 – Bobby Few, 85, American jazz pianist^[34]
• January 17 – Sammy Nestico, 96, American composer and arranger^[35]
• January 20 – Keith Nichols, 75, British instrumentalist and bandleader (COVID-19)^[36]
• January 23 – Jonas Gwangwa, 83, South African jazz trombonist^[37]
• February 9 – Chick Corea, 79, American pianist, composer and bandleader^[38]
• February 12 – Milford Graves, 79, American drummer and polymath^[39]
• March 2 – Chris Barber, 90, British bandleader and trombonist^[40]
• March 7 – Josky Kiambukuta, 72, Congolese singer (TPOK Jazz)^[41]
• March 8 – Julien-François Zbinden, 103, Swiss composer and jazz pianist^[42]
• March 10 – János Gonda, 89, Hungarian jazz pianist^[43]
• March 19 – Cristián Cuturrufo, 48, Chilean jazz trumpeter (COVID-19)^[44]
• March 28 – Malcolm Cecil, 84, British jazz bassist and record producer^[45]
• April 7 – Sonny Simmons, 87, American jazz saxophonist^[46]
• May 8 – Curtis Fuller, 88, American jazz trombonist^[47]
• May 15 – Mario Pavone, 80, American jazz bassist, composer and bandleader^[48]
• June 21 – Nobuo Hara, 94, Japanese saxophonist^[49]
• July 4 – Rick Laird, 80, Irish jazz bassist (Mahavishnu Orchestra)^[50]
• July 31 – Jerzy Matuszkiewicz, 93, Polish jazz musician and composer^[51]
• August 28 – Francesc Burrull, 86, Spanish musician and composer^[52]
• September 16 –George Mraz, 77, Czech-American jazz bassist^[53]
• September 28 - Dr. Lonnie Smith, 79, American jazz Hammond B3 organist
• October 18 – Franco Cerri, 95, Italian jazz guitarist.^[54]
• November 1 – Pat Martino, 77, American jazz guitarist.^[55]
• November 18 - Slide Hampton, 89, American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.
• December 8 - Barry Harris, 91, American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator

See also

• Jazz portal

• List of 2021 albums
• List of jazz festivals
• List of years in jazz
• 2020s in jazz
• 2021 in music