• Top 30 Jazz Albums for 2021

  Stephen Braunginn

  Producer/Host – Strictly Jazz Sounds: WORT89.9-FM, Madison, WI

  Not in particular order:

• As I compiled this list while preparing for my annual "Jazz in Retrospective" show, I realized the different strategies jazz musicians used to advance their music, to just play music with someone else. Trends reflect the times. I'm mostly moved by the passion exhibited through the music. I spent more time with smaller and indie labels this year. One final observation, the British are coming. Innovative jazz is springing from the UK!

• 1)    Benito Gonzalez: Sing to the World
• 2)    Joe Chambers: Samba de Maracatu
• 3)    Pierrick Pedron: Fifty-Fifty (New York Sessions)
• 4)    Miguel Zenón: Long Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman
• 5)    Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell, Carmen Castaldi: Trio Tapestry: Garden of Expression
• 6)    Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Joe Lovano: Arctic Riff
• 7)    Isaiah Collier& The Chosen Few: Cosmic Transitions
• 8)    Joe Lovano and Dave Douglas Sound Prints: Other Worlds
• 9)    Alchemy Sound Project: Afrika Love
• 10) Dennis Mitcheltree: Nevermind the Circus
• 11) Nicole Glover: Strange Lands
• 12) Ches Smith and We All Break: Path of Seven Colors
• 13) Terence Blanchard: Absence
• 14) Johannes Wallmann: Elegy for an Undiscovered Species
• 15) Chick Corea Akoustic Band: Live
• 16) Christian McBride and Inside Straight: Live at the Village Vanguard
• 17) Brandee Younger: Somewhere Different
• 18) Sons of Kemet: Black to the Future
• 19) Frank Kimbrough: Ancestors
• 20) Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey: Uneasy
• 21) Carlos Henriquez: The South Bronx Story
• 22) Victor Gould: In our Time
• 23) Renee Rosnes: Kinds of Love
• 24) Pat Metheny: Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV)
• 25) Kenny Garrett: Sounds From the Ancestors
• 26) James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Code of Being
• 27) Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows: Architect of Storms
• 28) Jihye Lee Orchestra: Daring Mind
• 29) Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: Virtual Birdland
• 30) The Cookers: Look Out!

Historical:

Hal Galper Quintet: Live at the Berlin Philharmonic 1977

Ella Fitzgerald: The Berlin Tapes

Alice Coltrane: Turiya Sings

John Coltrane: A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings

Lee Morgan: The Complete Live at the Lighthouse