THE BEST 30 JAZZ ALBUMS OF 2021
A SELECTION BY FILIPE FREITAS
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS red lily quintet
JESUP WAGON
TAO Forms
"This knockout album is a must-listen."
fire!
defeat
Rune Grammofone
"I’m completely drawn to Fire!’s spectacular forward-pushing jazz."
archie shepp / jason moran
let my people go
Archieball
"They excel in this collaboration filled with beautiful and impassioned lyricism."
kenny garrett
sounds from the ancestors
Mack Avenue Records
"Carrying Garrett’s unmistakable signature and unique energy, Sounds From the Ancestors is unmissable…"
johnathan blake
homeward bound
Blue Note Records
"The elegant drumming of Blake permeates the album."
charles lloyd & the marvels
Tone poem
Blue Note Records
"With a consummate ability to touch our hearts and speak to all of us through his majestic music, Charles Lloyd has here his best recording with The Marvels…"
alexander hawkins
togetherness music (for sixteen musicians)
Intakt Records
"This is one of those rare examples where improvisation-oriented music is brilliantly thought-provoking from start to finish."
matt mitchell / kate gentile
snark horse
Pi Recordings
"… essential listening for all modern music surfers whose waves range from microscopic precision to cosmic turbulence."
william parker
mayan space station
AUM Fidelity
"Parker’s new trio navigates high peaks and deep valleys with a riotously unpredictable temper and exploding energy."
adam o’farrill
visions of your other
Biophilia Records
"O’Farrill puts a fresh, elegant spin on this chord-less jazz, whose emotional angles are a pleasure to discover."
anna webber
idiom
Pi Recordings
"Boldly conceptual, Idiom is a hell of a record, whose meticulously blended sounds ricochet into eternity."
pat metheny
side eye nyc
Modern Recordings
"A thrilling collaborative energy inundates this mature, engaging trio album, an impossible-to-ignore addition to the guitarist’s formidable discography."
wadada leo smith / D.r. ewart / mike reed
sun beans of shimmering light
Astral Spirits
"Each track churns with impressively cohesive ideas; all is improvised, nothing is disjointed."
ohad talmor trio
mise en place
Intakt Records
"This is a work of pure dedication and focus, impressive in its sheer physicality and complexion."
vijay iyer
uneasy
ECM Records
"the virtuosity of the three musicians involved is constantly put at the service of the music."
makaya mccraven
deciphering the message
Blue Note Records
"… a continuous suite of splendorous narratives and vignettes that bridge two different eras with two fantastic group sounds."
hafez modirzadeh
facets
Pi Recordings
"Sculpted with brilliancy, Facets is as much mystifying as it is bewitching."
gordon grdina / jim black
martian kitties
Astral Spirits
"This is adventurous music by two idiosyncratic players who have excellent results by joining their own visions."
james brandon lewis quartet
code of being
Intakt Records
"This is another stunning offering from a brilliant saxophonist still in his thirties and fated to be a jazz giant."
sylvie courvoisier / mary halvorson
searching for the disappeared hour
Pyroplastic Records
"a record that reflects the colorful sounds and inventive textures that populate their minds."
joe lovano & dave douglas’ sound prints
other worlds
Greenleaf Music
"There’s a relaxed assurance to the entire set that stems from the experience of the collective."
nate wooley
mutual music aid
Pleasure of the Text Recordings
"This is a smart, masterful study in constructive music with a focused human perspective."
marc johnson
overpass
ECM Records
"Johnson combines warmth, scope, melody and rhythm, sustaining plenty of interest in the course of eight pieces where his creative vision and maturity are on display."
east axis
cool with that
ESP-Disk’
"With such players, a certain level of transcendence was expected, and the group delivers with both elegance and vitality."
henry threadgill zooid
poof
Pi Recordings
"A great return from Threadgill, who showcases the poetic puzzlement of his compositions and that magical style that leaves us marveled."
tobias meinhart
the painter
Sunnyside Records
"The Painter is an outstanding record, finding Meinhart at the summit of his compositional prowess and underscoring the strengths of the players in it."
dan mccarthy
a place where we once lived
Self released
"With the superlative interplay creating several moments of beauty, A Place Where We Once Lived is very much worthy of your time."
floating points / pharoah sanders
promises
Luaka Bop
"… a beautiful work, fruit of an inter-generational collaboration that should be welcomed by each and every jazz, classical and ambient music fan."
joão lencastre’s communion
unlimited dreams
Clean Feed
"Lencastre continues to cull modern aesthetics from his creative mind in a sensational, forceful showcase."
eivind aarset
phantasmagoria
Jazzland Recordings
"This hallucinatory fusion of experimental rock, avant-garde, ambient and noise is a thoroughly engrossing trip to Aarset’s mystified musical cosmos."